Public defence of doctoral thesis in Health Science with Øyvind Karlsson
Welcome on December 16 when Øyvind Karlsson defends his thesis "Monitoring health problems and training to support performance in competitive cross-country ski athletes"
Summary
Competitive cross-country ski athletes are vulnerable to developing various health-related symptoms and conditions due to several factors, such as high physiological and psychological demands, extreme competition and training environments, high training loads, demanding competition schedules, and frequent travel.
Typical health-related symptoms and conditions among elite-level cross-country skiers are respiratory tract infections, gastrointestinal infections, exertional asthma, overtraining and low energy availability. Health problems can potentially lead to them missing important competitions and training, understanding the connections between training and illness, and how it affects performance is therefore important.
In my thesis, I have therefore investigated the connections between training, performance, and health problems, with a particular focus on diseases, with the aim of improving the support given to the active in order to ultimately increase their performance.
Supervisors
Main supervisor: Kerry McGawley
Assistant supervisor: Marko S. Laaksonen
Opponent
Professor Shona Halson, Australian Catholic University