Long Covid has a lasting effect on the lives of many athletes – including that of top rower Marie-Sophie Zeidler. Science is getting better at understanding the disease, but there is still no one-size-fits-all solution.
Rower Marie-Sophie Zeidler (2nd from right) tries to get back to work quickly after the second corona infection
The training is intensive, Marie-Sophie Zeidler's focus is on the Olympic Games in Paris 2024. However, the German top rower has to fight again in these days and weeks with an opponent who cannot really be assessed. The 24-year-old top athlete, younger sister of one-double world champion Oliver Zeidler, contracted a corona infection for the second time after October 2020 a good four weeks ago. At that time, her lung volume was reduced to just 60 percent capacity, today she has to cope with a loss of a good 25 percent. “It's extremely frightening to see how quickly your body can break down even though you're actually fit,” Zeidler told DW.
After her first infection, she struggled for six months with long-Covid symptoms such as rapid physical exhaustion, tiredness and other unpleasant accompanying circumstances before she regained her old productivity. “Now medicine has advanced and there are medications,” says Zeidler, who works as a police officer. The anti-Covid medicine helped her, now everything goes faster. Therefore, the high-performance rower hopes to be able to find her way back to her old form much more quickly. “But whether there is enough time and whether the Olympic Games are really still realistic remains to be seen,” said Zeidler, who still has to qualify for this major event in competitions.
Treatment is demanding
“Even if we, as scientists, understand this disease better and better – there is no single method of combating Long Covid. We are talking about 200 different symptoms that have to be distinguished,” says Wilhelm Bloch, head of the Department of Molecular Diseases and cellular sports medicine from the German Sport University in Cologne, DW. However, he and his colleagues are constantly working towards better solutions and treatment methods. Bloch, however, leaves no doubt as to the seriousness of Long Covid. Around six percent of the affected active people could no longer practice their sport at all, according to the sports scientist: “There are individual cases in the post-Covid area, they are just dramatic.”
Fatigue syndrome is often observed with Long Covid – persistent tiredness, profound weakness and lack of drive, so that normal everyday life can hardly be managed. Marie-Sophie Zeidler experienced the same thing. “You always have to focus on the individual complaints of the patient, that's very important,” says Bloch. This often makes the treatment so demanding and sometimes complicated.
From light to heavy
At TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen, rehabilitation trainer Hans-Peter Gierden works in specially developed courses to ensure that long-Covid patients gradually get back on their feet. “Many people cannot concentrate, some have balance disorders, and there is always fatigue syndrome,” says Gierden. “The trick is not to overwhelm the participant and to dose the exercises correctly.”
< p>Balance and strengthening exercises are part of rehabilitation for long-Covid patients
Incidentally, each course hour is put together differently. “It may be that I combine balance with strengthening exercises. Or there is also a badminton lesson. All exercises are always carried out from easy to difficult. And if it gets too much, you can go back to the previous exercise,” says Gierden. After each exercise session, the 57-year-old uses the so-called “Borg scale” (named after the Swedish physiologist Gunnar Borg) to check the subjective exertion of the individual course participants.
“Since I've been taking part, I've felt a lot better,” Hermann-Josef Eigen told DW. In April 2021, the formerly very active recreational athlete was hit very hard by a Covid infection, and he was about to be admitted to the intensive care unit -year-olds. It took almost four months before he was even able to walk a few steps again. When his health improved again, he joined Hans-Peter Gierden's rehabilitation course. “Due to the type of training, the shortness of breath has been forgotten,” says Eigen. He now practices the exercises at home, outside of class, for at least an hour every day. “I'm even better now than before I got sick.”
Zeidler: “Strange Disease”
“In the months after the illness, the athletes usually complain that they can't reach their full potential. In the first three months in particular, it is easy to see how affected the athletes are from the increased resting heart rate,” says sports scientist Bloch. “But it often takes a few more months until everything is back to the old performance level.”
Marie -Sophie Zeidler is hoping to take part in the Olympic Games in Paris
After careful increases in training, rower Marie-Sophie Zeidler is currently free of symptoms after most physical exertion. At a recently completed training camp, she was able to push her physical limits again. Only after the last day of training did she unexpectedly fall into a physical hole. “Suddenly nothing worked for me anymore,” says Zeidler, who is about to compete after the recent corona infection.
“That's the strange thing about this disease: you can see the reaction of the body simply cannot be predicted. On a good day anything is possible, on a bad day nothing is possible.” You simply have to be surprised.