Effect of COVID-19 Pandemic on Perceived Stress, Anxiety, Mood, and Training Quality in Elite Athletes.

On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic. On the same day, the first COVID-19 case reported in Turkey and nationwide quarantine regulations started after a spike in case numbers. In the world of sports, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic started with staging games without spectators, gradually all sports events and team practices were postponed. Soon later, athletes advised to quarantine at home and continue training individually. Similar to previous study results, the COVID-19 outbreak expected to cause a profound and wide range of psychosocial impacts on people during outbreaks of infection. In fact, preliminary results from a study in China showed a moderate to severe degree psychological impact on more than half of the respondents. However, the effect of COVID-19 on mental health symptoms in elite athletes has not been investigated. In this study, the investigator aims to investigate stress, anxiety, mood, life satisfaction measures among elite athletes during COVID-19 and explore the potential relationship between these measures and the changes in training characteristics during the COVID-19 pandemic.