You may have heard that top athletes avoid sex before a big event, so as to keep their fitness and wellness levels to an absolute maximum, but is there any science to support this? How does your sexual health really affect other aspects of your wellbeing?
At the London 2012 Olympics, there was more than 150,000 condoms handed out to the 10,500 athletes, as London Mayor Boris Johnson noted he wanted the Olympics to “inspire a generation” not “create a generation”. However, even if the modern day Olympiads were getting down to it before race day, that’s not how it’s always been. Boxing legend Muhammad Ali supposedly practised abstinence in the six weeks leading up to a big fight, and the England football team was reportedly banned from sex during the 1998 World Cup. Then you have American Marty Liquori, the world’s top 5000-metre runner four decades ago, who was famous for says, ‘Sex makes you happy. Happy people don’t run a 3:47 mile.’ So does that mean Mo Farah could have edged a few seconds off his time? Not according to the evidence.
Ian Shrier, a professor in the department of family medicine at McGill University in Canada, comments, ‘When we test people in the lab, we are examining “tests of performance” but in competition, psychology very likely plays a much more important role. Those who claim it decreases performance usually say it is because it decreases focus or aggression or tension. There are no studies that have examined this.’
Martin Milton, an expert in psycho-therapeutic and counseling psychology at the University of Surrey, notes that the effect of sex really comes down to who you are, how often you’re having sex, for how long and in what way. ‘If it’s “up all night swinging from the rafters” type sex we’re talking about, then obviously the athlete is not going to be getting enough sleep or rest and their mind isn’t on the job,’ says Milton. ‘So that might well be more the issue than whether or not being involved in a short period of sex might be detrimental to someone’s performance.’
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