Geert Kleinnibbelink

Cardiac Remodelling in Olympic Athletes 4 107 into (ab)normal levels of adaptation, largely originate from studies performed in males. Our work supports performing specific studies in women, examining the geometry and potential pathological relevance of the female athlete’s heart. CONCLUSION In conclusion, our data suggest that an increased exercise training volume in elite rowers across 9-months induced side-specific cardiac remodelling. Specifically, we found left- sided (but not right-sided) structural adaptations, with concomitant increase in LV twist in already highly trained rowers. Interestingly, these adaptations were significantly larger in women compared to men, a finding that warrants further exploration in future work. Taken together, our work suggests that examining the athlete’s heart should go beyond the single-sided approach most previous studies adopted, and should explore both left and right-sided adaptation.