Impact of sport disciplines on gut microbiota in elite athletes: evidence from Taekwondo and diving athletes
Xuelian Chen, Lihui Xie, Bing Li · 2026
Read Impact of sport disciplines on gut microbiota in elite athletes: evidence from Taekwondo and diving athletes by Xuelian Chen, Lihui Xie, Bing Li (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13191435.txt.
Description
Xuelian Chen, Lihui Xie, and Bing Li compare gut bacteria in elite athletes from two sports in a 2026 study. Gut microbes are tied to performance, but whether the sport itself shapes them was rarely tested.
The team sequenced gut microbes from 27 professional taekwondo athletes and 11 divers. Overall diversity and broad structure were much the same in both groups. Yet the mix of microbes did differ between the sports, and 12 metabolic pathways stood out as different. Some fat-building pathways ran lower in the taekwondo group, while several breakdown pathways ran higher. The authors say the sport's demands may leave a specific mark on the gut, even at the top level.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Xuelian Chen, Lihui Xie, Bing Li |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 28 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |