{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,29]],"date-time":"2026-08-29T19:15:37Z","timestamp":1788030937067,"version":"build-2784847793"},"reference-count":29,"publisher":"Springer Science and Business Media LLC","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,29]],"date-time":"2026-08-29T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1787961600000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,29]],"date-time":"2026-08-29T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1787961600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100020013","name":"NIHR Leicester Biomedical Research Centre","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["NIHR203327"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["NIHR203327"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100020013","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["link.springer.com"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sports Med - Open"],"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Ambient air pollution impairs respiratory and cardiovascular function during exercise, yet evidence on its effects across the full spectrum of endurance performance remains limited.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Objectives<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>To quantify the association between race-day ambient air pollution and marathon finishing time across six World Marathon Majors, and to determine whether effects vary by sex, age group, and performance level.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>We analysed 2,756,553 net finishing times from six World Marathon Majors (Berlin, Boston, Chicago, London, New York City, and Tokyo) for editions held between 2010 and 2024. Race-day nitrogen dioxide (NO\u2082) and fine particulate matter (PM\u2082.\u2085) concentrations were obtained from the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) global reanalysis dataset. Linear mixed-effects models with random intercepts for each of 75 marathon\u2013year events estimated pollution effects on finishing time, adjusting for heat index, wind speed, and temporal trends. Stratified analyses were conducted among 1,815,188 runners with available age data.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Of the pollutants examined, NO\u2082 showed the stronger association with finishing time. Each 1\u00a0\u00b5g\/m\n                      <jats:sup>3<\/jats:sup>\n                      increase was associated with 1.43\u00a0min slower finishing time in men (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.66 to 2.21) and 1.56\u00a0min in women (95% CI 0.63 to 2.48). PM\u2082.\u2085 effects were not statistically significant: \u22120.13\u00a0min per \u00b5g\/m\n                      <jats:sup>3<\/jats:sup>\n                      in men (95% CI \u22120.67 to 0.40) and \u22120.14\u00a0min per \u00b5g\/m\n                      <jats:sup>3<\/jats:sup>\n                      in women (95% CI \u22120.76 to 0.49). Recreational runners experienced NO\u2082 effects approximately six-fold larger than elite runners (2.12 vs 0.34\u00a0min per \u00b5g\/m\n                      <jats:sup>3<\/jats:sup>\n                      ); expressed as a percentage of mean finishing time, this gradient persisted (0.67% vs 0.18%). Younger runners (18\u201329\u00a0years) showed larger effects than older runners (2.17 vs 1.32\u00a0min per \u00b5g\/m\n                      <jats:sup>3<\/jats:sup>\n                      for \u226560\u00a0years). Kolmogorov\u2013Smirnov tests confirmed that higher NO\u2082 was associated with rightward shifts across the entire finishing time distribution.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Ambient air pollution, particularly NO\u2082, is associated with impaired marathon performance in a dose-dependent manner, with the largest effects among recreational runners. These findings have implications for race management and public health policy regarding outdoor physical activity in urban environments.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1186\/s40798-026-01099-6","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,29]],"date-time":"2026-08-29T18:15:57Z","timestamp":1788027357000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Air Pollution Impairs Marathon Performance: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of 2.7 Million Finishers Across Six World Marathon Majors"],"prefix":"10.1186","volume":"12","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3230-276X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"James A.","family":"Donaldson","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1601-2199","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Samuel","family":"Cai","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5895-8594","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Josh Vande","family":"Hey","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9904-7447","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Anna L","family":"Hansell","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Thomas","family":"Yates","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5965-0671","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"G. 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This study used only publicly available, anonymised data and did not involve human participants, their data, or biological material requiring ethics approval.","order":1,"name":"Ethics","label":"Ethics Approval and Consent to Participate","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Declarations"}},{"value":"Not applicable.","order":2,"name":"Ethics","label":"Consent for Publication","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Declarations"}},{"value":"James A. Donaldson, Samuel Cai, Joshua Vande Hey, Anna Hansell, Thomas Yates, Andr\u00e9 Ng, and Jamie O'Driscoll declare that they have no competing interests.","order":3,"name":"Ethics","label":"Competing Interests","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Declarations"}}],"article-number":"128"}}