Author(s): GARCÍA-GONZÁLEZ, P., GONZÁLEZ-JURADO, J.A., Institution: EUROPEAN COLLEGE OF SPORT SCIENCE, Country: GERMANY, Abstract-ID: 445

INTRODUCTION:
World Championships are attractive to the scientific community and have been investigated in a wide range of sports (De La Rubia et al., 2020), sometimes related somehow to triathlon (Haupt et al., 2013). The ITU World World Aquathlon Championship is the top championship for aquathlon. Sex differences in multi-sports performance have been found to depend on discipline and distance, as previous studies have shown (Lepers, 2019). Lepers & Stapley (2010) have asserted that the sex gap is narrower in the Olympic distance when compared to other larger distances. Some studies provide overwhelmingly positive evidence of COVID-19 pandemic in sport regardless of the influence of lockdown. For instance, it has been demonstrated that lockdown was beneficial in maintaining the physical fitness of gymnasts in the United Kingdom and was perceived as time for rest and recovery (Patel et al., 2022). The influence of COVID-pandemic on aquathlon is not yet clear. The aim of the present study is to provide a comprehensive analysis of the effect of COVID-19 pandemic on performance in the World Aquathlon Championship focusing on the male and female categories.
METHODS:
The dataset for this study was obtained from the ITU World Triathlon Series (WTS) website (http://wts.triathlon.org/). Individual discipline times and overall times from 2018 and 2022 were collected for analysis, excluding 2020 due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The total number included athletes in this study was 280 subjects (176 males and 106 females). The mean age of subjects overall was 23.20 for males and 22.44 for females. The Students t-test for independent samples comparing sex was used for normal variables, whereas the Mann-Whitney U-test was used for non-normal variables.

RESULTS:
European men were the 83.52% of the total amount un participants whereas it was the 91.5% for women. Non-African women participated. The analysis displayed several significant changes in performance after COVID-19 pandemic. For men, two significant differences were found in ST and FT, enhancing the first one and worsening the second one (p-values 0.010; 0.027). Women experienced a 3.65% improvement in ST (p-value 0.001). When all participants were analyzed irrespective of sex, only ST and T1 displayed significant differences (p-values = 0.045; ˂ 0.000). When comparing the relative changes between sex in, two significant differences were observed in both relative running time and relative final time (p-values = 0.014; ˂0.000), with women showing better results in performance changes.

CONCLUSION:
Women reacted better than men to the running and final performance after COVID-19. These findings validate the necessity of considering each discipline when assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the performance of elite aquathlon athletes in the World Championship.