Wasted efforts of elite Marathon runners under a warming climate primarily due to atmospheric oxygen reduction

Abstract

Meteorological conditions exert influences on sport performances via complex processes. Previous studies conventionally investigate the effects of weather conditions on marathon performance by following events held at the same places, which brings large uncertainties due to the changed participants. Via following each athlete to eliminate these uncertainties, we show that elite athletes’ marathon-running performance tends to monotonically worsen as ambient temperature rises except when it is extremely cold based on the best 16 athletes from each of the sex continents. It worsens by 0.56 (0.39 for men and 0.71 for women) min/°C when it rises beyond 15 °C. Theoretical analysis based on global marathon performance and weather observation datasets shows that more than half of this effect is mediated by reduced oxygen partial density as warmer temperature expands air and increases vapor pressure for both the men and women athletes, which is confirmed by the methods of Baron–Kenny. This atmospheric thermodynamic mechanism has not been emphasized previously. We also show that world-top athletes’ marathon performance approximately linearly worsens as ambient pressure decreases and slightly worsens as relative humidity rises if not extremely wet. These results substantially differ from the previous ones following the events instead of each athlete. Multi-variable changes in climate system are projected to slow Olympic marathon athletes by 2.51 and 1.06 min by the end of the 21st century in relative to 2020 under the high and intermediate emission scenario, respectively. Therefore, future progression of marathon performance is likely to be substantially slowed or even halted by climate changes without efficient greenhouse gas mitigation.