Eleven Years' Monitoring of the World's Most Successful Male Biathlete of the Last Decade

Abstract

Purpose: To report the changes in the training characteristics, performance, and heart-rate variability (HRV) of the world's most successful male biathlete of the last decade.

Method: During the analyzed 11-year (2009-2019) period, the participant won 7 big crystal globes, corresponding to the winner of the International Biathlon Union World Cup. The training characteristics are reported as yearly volume (in hours) of low-intensity training (LIT), moderate- and high-intensity training, and speed and strength training. Performance was quantified by the number of World Cup top-3 positions per season. HRV was expressed as low- and high-frequency spectral power (in milliseconds squared), root-mean-square difference of successive R-R interval (in milliseconds), and heart rate (in beats per minute).

Results: The training volume increased from 530 to ∼700 hours per year in 2009-2019, with a large polarization in training intensity distribution (ie, LIT 86.3% [2.9%]; moderate-intensity training 3.4% [1.5%]; high-intensity training 4.0% [0.7%]; strength 6.3% [1.6%]). The number of top-3 positions increased from 2 to 24-26 in 2009-2018 but decreased to 6 in 2019. The mean supine values in the root-mean-square difference of successive R-R interval and high-frequency spectral power divided by heart rate increased until 2015, which were stable over 2016-2018 but decreased in 2019. The number of top-3 positions was related to the total (r = .66, P = .02) and LIT (r = .92, P < .001) volume and to several markers of supine parasympathetic activity.

Conclusion: The improvement in performance of the participant was mainly determined by the progressive increase in training volume, especially performed at low intensity, and was correlated to parasympathetic activity markers. This case study confirms the effectiveness of the training method, with a large amount of LIT in an elite endurance athlete, and of regular HRV monitoring.

Keywords: biathlon; endurance performance; heart-rate variability; training intensity; training volume.