Foreword by Uğur Erdener,
Chair of the IOC Medical and Scientific
Commission

Dear Colleagues, Dear Participants,

Welcome to Rome for the first IOC Course on Respiratory Care of Olympic Athletes.

As part of its mission to keep protect the health athletes the International Olympic Committee annually assembles medical experts around the globe to produce consensus statements highlighting the unique interface of the athlete health and important medical conditions.

In 2021 and 2022, experts in respiratory medicine working with the IOC published a series of consensus statements. Conditions central to these publications included acute respiratory infections and non-infective respiratory illness (structural and mucosal nasal obstruction, exercise-induced laryngeal obstruction (EILO), asthma, exercise-induced bronchoconstriction, and other forms of lower airway dysfunction) among other important topics. The consensus documents provided guidance related to the recognition, diagnosis, measurement, management, and antidoping considerations of these conditions.

Disparities exist in the ability of different NOCs and NPCs to implement respiratory care guidelines provided in the IOC consensus statements. The results are the commonly recognized and published observations of misdiagnosis of various conditions among athletes within the respiratory health domain and the related improper use of respiratory medications - leading both to antidoping violations involving respiratory medications and an uneven playing field dependent on access to basic respiratory care.

The vision of this IOC course on Respiratory Care of Olympic Athletes is to empower the sports and exercise medicine physicians that take care of high-level athletes with practical knowledge about the evaluation and management of the common infective and non-infective acute respiratory conditions that affect athletes.

Apart from our medical discussions, we will also have time for informal social interaction, and to build an international network with experienced colleagues from all over the world.

My sincere thanks also go to my colleague Martin Schwellnus who put together a fantastic scientific programme.

I look forward to a successful first course, and many fruitful discussions in Rome, Italy!

Prof. Dr Uğur Erdener
Chair, IOC Medical and Scientific Commission