elite athletes

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in global home confinement and quarantine, leading to the vaccination of societies worldwide. However, some elite athletes have negative views toward vaccination. Aim: This study aimed to compare the lifestyle of vaccinated versus unvaccinated international elite athletes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and Methods: From March to October 2021, an online survey was conducted, including socio-individual information of athletes, the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ), the Rapid Eating Assessment for Participants (REAP-S), and the Petersburg Sleep Quality Questionnaire (PSQI). A total of 581 elite athletes from 4 continents (Europe, Asia, Africa, and America) and different countries, aged 18-35 years, were voluntarily recruited. Data analysis was performed using U-Mann-Whitney and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests, with the level of significance set at alpha P <0.05. Results: The results indicated that there was a significant difference between the level of physical activity and eating behavior of vaccinated versus unvaccinated elite athletes ( P <0.001). However, no significant difference was found between the quality of sleep among vaccinated and unvaccinated elite athletes ( P =0.270). Conclusion: It was shown that, despite the unvaccinated status of some elite athletes (49.9%), their physical activity levels were higher than those of vaccinated elite athletes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, the eating behavior of vaccinated elite athletes was better than that of unvaccinated elite athletes during the COVID-19 pandemic, but there was no significant difference in the quality of sleep between the groups.

The current study's prime objective was to assess virtual reality games' impact on the mental skills of elite athletes during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, 228 elite athletes were randomly selected and divided into four groups of 57 controls and experiments. All subjects in the control and experimental groups received virtual reality games for 15 minutes for ten sessions; then, each group was re-examined. The control group performed a follow-up test according to the posttest after two weeks using the Ottawa mental skills assessment questionnaire (OMSAT-3), and repeated measures analysis of covariance and Bonferroni post hoc test were used to test the hypothesis (P≤0.05). The results obtained using repeated measures analysis of covariance and Bonferroni post hoc test showed that virtual reality games influenced elite athletes' mental skills in COVID. From these findings, it can be said that virtual reality games can improve the mental skills of elite athletes during COVID-19

Objective: This study investigated the synergistic effects of neurofeedback (NF) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on enhancing athletic performance and psychological resilience in elite athletes, addressing critical gaps in standardized protocols and long-term efficacy within sports neuroscience. Methods: A randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled crossover design was employed with 60 national-level athletes (30 male, 30 female) stratified by sport type (endurance/skill-based). Participants underwent 10 sessions of either: (1) active NF (SMR upregulation via 64-channel EEG) + active tDCS (2mA over left DLPFC), (2) active NF + sham tDCS, (3) sham NF + active tDCS, or (4) sham NF + sham tDCS. Primary outcomes included sport-specific performance metrics (reaction time, time-to-exhaustion) and psychological resilience (CD-RISC-25), with secondary EEG measures (beta power, P300) assessed at baseline, post-intervention, and 8-week follow-up. Results: The combined NF+tDCS group demonstrated superior improvements versus sham controls: 15.2% faster reaction time (p < 0.001, d = 1.21), 12.4% increased endurance (p = 0.002), and 22.3-point higher resilience scores (p < 0.001). EEG revealed sustained beta power elevation over the left DLPFC (+2.1 dB at follow-up, p = 0.01), mediating 41% of resilience gains through reduced amygdala reactivity (HRV analysis, β = 0.64, p = 0.003). Skill-based athletes showed greater cognitive benefits, while endurance athletes exhibited stronger psychological gains, with sex-specific effects noted (females: better tDCS response; males: superior NF anxiety reduction). Conclusion: Combined NF and tDCS induces durable, sport-specific enhancements in both performance and resilience, likely through prefrontal-amygdala circuit plasticity. These findings advocate for personalized neuromodulation protocols in elite sports while highlighting the need for ethical frameworks governing neuroenhancement technologies.