604 MEP060 – The IOC olympian health cohort: recruitment of olympians from Tokyo 2020 summer and Beijing 2022 winter Olympic games

AbstractBackground Olympic Games surveillance studies report injury incidences between 9–14% of all athletes, while retired Olympian studies report 63% having had a significant career-related injury. Hence, currently there are significant gaps in our understanding of Olympian Health. To better understand athlete injury and illness and wider health and well-being issues, including identification of new emerging issues, we need to follow Olympians prospectively throughout their competitive careers.Objective Recruit a sample of current Summer and Winter Olympians, to survey them on health and wellbeing issues throughout their Olympic careers and into retirement.Design Long-term, prospective observational study using self-report questionnaires.Setting GlobalParticipants Olympians who participated in the Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022 Olympics.Interventions Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022 Olympians were recruited to the study, with intended survey time-points continuing every two years. Recruitment took place over 12 months (Jul 2022-Jul 2023) during which electronic surveys, available in eight languages, were distributed by email through National Olympic Committee, International Olympic Committee and Athlete365 channels. Main Outcome Measures Number and distribution of Olympian participants.Results After removal of duplicates and blank entries, there were 331 Olympians who participated in the survey with 216 female and 113 male athletes (2 unknown), from 70 countries. This included 245 Tokyo Olympians (197 continuing, 48 retired – after the Olympics) across 37 summer sports, and 86 Beijing Olympians (73 continuing, 13 retired) across 14 winter sports. Mean years competing internationally was 10.2 and 10.6 years for Tokyo and Beijing Olympians, respectively. Conclusion Regular surveying of Olympians recruited to the study will allow more accurate identification and analysis of factors associated with Olympic sport participation. Including musculoskeletal health, illness, mental health and other health and well-being issues, with the goal to protect the health of all Olympians, both during their careers and after retirement from sport.