The Impact of Participation in the Olympics on Post-olympic Performance in Professional Ice Hockey Players.

Emily Bremer,John Cairney

doi:10.3389/fspor.2020.00076

Abstract

The 2014 Sochi Winter Games were the last Winter Olympics where NHL players were allowed to compete. One explanation for prohibiting NHL players from participating in the Winter Olympics is a perceived negative impact on their performance post-Olympics, owing to the additional fatigue of participating. The purpose of this study was to explore whether participation in the 2014 Sochi Winter Games negatively impacted individual NHL player performance post-Olympics. A database was constructed to examine NHL player points per game played as the performance outcome pre- and post- the 2014 Winter Olympics during the 2013–2014 NHL season. Three multilevel models were fitted with post-Olympics points per game as the outcome. Model 1 examined the effect of Olympic minutes played, controlling for pre-Olympics points per game. Model 2 introduced player position (forward vs. defense) and model 3 included an interaction between player position and Olympic minutes played to determine if there were differential effects of Olympic participation on post-Olympic performance by position. The results show that Olympic minutes played did not have a significant main effect on post-Olympics performance (p > 0.10). There was a significant interaction between Olympic minutes played and playing position whereby forwards who played a higher number of minutes in the Olympics scored fewer points per game post-Olympics than forwards playing fewer Olympic minutes. The magnitude of this effect, however, was quite small [b (SE) = −0.003 (0.001), p = 0.03]. These findings suggest that the effect of Olympic playing time on individual player performance post-Olympics is minimal.

Highlights

Pierre De Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic movement, would most certainly disagree with the practice, allowing so-called professional athletes to compete in the Olympics has become standard practice over the past few decades
In 1995, an agreement between the governing professional body [National Hockey League (NHL)], the amateur associations, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), was reached and professional ice NHL Olympic Fatigue hockey players were allowed to compete for the first time at the 1998 winter games, more than 71 years following the introduction of the winter Olympics to the program (Lapointe, 1997)
We examined whether participation in the 2014 Sochi Winter Games, the last Winter Olympics where NHL players were allowed to compete, negatively impacted individual player performance post-Olympic Games

Summary

Introduction

Pierre De Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic movement, would most certainly disagree with the practice, allowing so-called professional athletes to compete in the Olympics has become standard practice over the past few decades. Controversy surrounded the introduction of professionals, with the NHL in particular complaining about the impact the winter games had on the professional schedule and the threat of injury to players. While it is not uncommon for professional sport organizations to send their players to international competitions, the case of the NHL and the Winter Olympics is unique in that the games occur in the middle of the regular season. This interruption in regular season play raises concern about the potentially negative impact to team performance that arises from sending the leagues’ top players to an elite competition (Longley, 2012)

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