Ice hockey professional Janik Möser
Photo: dpa / Uwe Anspach
A lucky coincidence could have saved Juliane Wolf’s life after her corona infection. Actually, the para-table tennis player had already been approved to return to training when she received the diagnosis as part of a voluntary study: myocarditis – as a result of her Covid 19 disease. A horror scenario for a competitive athlete, a return to maximum stress could have had serious consequences.
Sudden cardiac death threatens
“In the worst case, it can lead to sudden cardiac death,” warned sports medicine specialist Dr. Wilhelm Bloch. “It won’t happen very often, but it can happen. That is the great sword of Damocles. “In any case, there is a” concrete risk “that the heart will also be affected by a corona infection – whether with minor abnormalities or the great specter of myocarditis.
Two German top athletes have already been affected by this: ice hockey professional Janik Möser and table tennis player Juliane Wolf. “This is not to be trifled with, I really have to take it easy,” said former European team champion Wolf. “My cardiologist said I should make sure that my pulse doesn’t go over 120 – normal training is almost impossible at the moment.”
After a mild course of the disease and a subsequent inconspicuous sports medical examination, she had already received the clearance for this. As with Möser, myocarditis was only discovered by a happy coincidence. Wolf, research assistant at the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, took part in a corona study there. Finding: At least three months break instead of returning to training.
The results of the relevant study are appalling. 78 percent of the test participants had abnormalities in their hearts, 60 percent of the participants even diagnosed myocarditis. The abnormalities in the hearts of the test subjects were independent of how badly someone was sick with Covid-19 – even those who felt consistently healthy can suffer heart damage from Corona.
The Athletes Germany Association is correspondingly “concerned”. The accumulation of myocardial inflammation after corona infections makes it clear that it is “absolutely necessary” “that the existing protocols for returning to sport are adhered to, even with asymptomatic courses,” said Amelie Ebert, member of the Presidium. The former synchronized swimmer is also a member of the medical commission in the German Olympic Sports Confederation.
Athletes start training too early
But explaining to the asymptomatic athletes that they are “not allowed to exercise as much as possible in quarantine and that they have to undergo a sports medical examination before they can come back is really difficult,” said Dr. Anja Hirschmüller, team doctor for the German disabled athletes. “That requires a lot of educational work.”
Even if the prescribed tests are passed completely and without problems before returning to training, there is no one hundred percent certainty of full recovery, as with Wolf. “The heart compensates a lot,” said Bloch. This is why so-called myocarditis is often overlooked in the classic exercise ECG during sports medical examinations.
With the possibly unrecognized consequences of Covid-19 disease, athletes, like Marin Pongracic from the Bundesliga club VfL Wolfsburg, like to start training or even competition too early. Something like this could “go well in most cases, but also be very dangerous,” warned university professor Bloch.
Many athletes, such as the three-time wrestling world champion Frank Stäbler, experienced first hand that despite supposed recovery, the load cannot be increased from zero to one hundred straight away. “I had a real break in during a stress test, my pump burned like hell,” complained Stäbler. So caution is advised because the consequences of the infection will only become apparent in the years to come. SID/nd
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