Air Quality and Athletic Ability During Winter’s Big Games

February is rarely gentle. Even in a good year, it’s a slog — short days, long nights, and that cabin-fever feeling that sets in when winter keeps us locked inside. This year, the challenge feels even sharper, thanks to repeated blasts of subzero Arctic air from the Polar Vortex impacting much of the country.

This week will bring relief from the winter blues in the form of world-class sports — the biggest game in American football and that quadrennial worldwide winter sports competition. Both are the kind of athletic spectacle that captivates people — whether you’re watching hard hits on the gridiron, the elegance of pairs figure skating, or something in between.

But beneath the excitement, these massive sporting moments come with an often-overlooked downside: changes in air quality that can affect performance in real, measurable ways.

And yes — you may roll your eyes at this. Surprise, surprise: the official blog of an air purifier company has found an air quality angle in what’s trending this week. But hear us out. The connection between air quality and major athletic events is real, measurable, and increasingly difficult to ignore. Read on to see just how much it matters.

What We’ve Already Learned About Air Quality and Athletes

The Austin Air blog first explored how air quality affects athletic performance in early 2024. Research showed that even relatively small increases in air pollution were associated with measurable increases in on-field mistakes.¹ These weren’t conditioning-related errors or late-game fatigue issues; they were cognitive mistakes happening in real time.

One of the most striking findings was who was most affected. Players in defensive positions — those responsible for instantly reacting to complicated on-field conditions — showed the largest performance declines when air quality worsened. As the air gets dirtier, reaction times slow, judgment falters, and costly errors become more likely.

Another study, which examined both professional football and baseball, reinforced this pattern.²  Researchers found that poorer air quality was predictive of increased error rates, missed plays, and reduced technical precision, even when pollution levels were well within what most people would consider “acceptable.” 

The takeaway was clear: air pollution doesn’t just tax the lungs — it interferes with concentration, decision-making, and motor coordination. Even the most elite athletes are more likely to make mistakes.

Since then, the research has expanded — broadening across sports, pollutants, and levels of play.

New Evidence from the World’s Most Popular Sport

Last year, researchers published a comprehensive narrative review examining air pollution and its effects on footballers (soccer players). Rather than reporting on a single experiment, this type of study synthesizes findings from a wide range of existing research — drawing from epidemiology, exercise physiology, environmental health, and sports science — to identify consistent patterns and knowledge gaps.³

What makes this review particularly notable is its scope. The authors examined studies involving both elite and non-elite athletes, outdoor and indoor training environments, short-term pollution spikes and long-term exposure, and multiple pollutant types. 

They also focused on pollutants athletes are most likely to encounter in real-world conditions, including fine and coarse particulate matter (PM_2.5) and PM₁₀), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), and ground-level ozone (O₃) — pollutants commonly generated by traffic, industry, and energy production near urban sports facilities.

Soccer requires sustained aerobic output, repeated high-intensity bursts, precise motor coordination, and continuous cognitive processing under pressure. That combination makes soccer players an especially revealing population for studying how air quality interacts with athletic performance.

The conclusions were sobering. Across the body of evidence reviewed, exposure to air pollution was consistently associated with measurable declines in both physical and cognitive performance, including:

• Reduced aerobic capacity: including documented declines in the maximum amount of oxygen your body can use during intense exercise (VO₂ max)

• Impaired technical precision and motor coordination: affecting fine motor control and execution

• Slower decision-making and diminished cognitive performance: particularly under high-pressure conditions

• Elevated markers of muscle damage and systemic inflammation: suggesting increased physiological stress

• Delayed recovery following intense exertion: potentially compounding fatigue over time – a major issue for athletes competing in tournament-style contests with multiple days of action

Notably, many of these effects were observed even when pollutant concentrations fell within current regulatory limits — echoing the findings from the football and baseball study cited above. In other words, air quality considered “acceptable” for the general public may still be suboptimal for athletes operating at the margins of human performance.

Taken together, the consistency of these findings points in one clear direction: polluted air undermines both the physical and cognitive components of elite athletic performance.

When the World Comes to Compete, the Air Changes 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, research published in 2023 found that large professional sporting events affect local air quality.⁴ Transportation emerged in the study as the dominant contributor. Regions where spectators primarily drive to venues tend to see larger pollution spikes than areas with robust public transit. 

The irony is hard to miss: athletes train for years to compete at the highest level, only to face degraded air quality on the world stage — precisely when the stakes are highest. 

The reality may be worse for athletes participating in the Italian Alps today through February 22, than for the football players partaking in the big game this Sunday. To start, many of these winter athletes train in remote and pristine environments and don’t regularly experience the type of localized decline in air quality that will accompany these massive events.

Additionally, air pollution is frequently worse in colder months due to temperature inversions, increased fuel combustion, and stagnant air — conditions that can trap pollutants close to the ground. The Po Valley in Northern Italy, which will host many events this month, has a reputation for winter-specific air pollution issues.⁵ 

The European Space Agency has stated:

During certain weather conditions, such as temperature inversions, the valley becomes a bowl where pollutants, including particulate matter and nitrogen oxides, accumulate, leading to elevated concentrations of air pollutants.

Yikes — "bowl" of pollutants? Fingers crossed that the wind will blow in the direction that is best for everyone’s health, for both athletes and spectators.

Watching the Games with a New Perspective

As you settle in this weekend — whether you’re captivated by the controlled chaos of football or the quiet precision of winter sports — it’s worth remembering that athletic performance doesn’t exist in a vacuum. The air athletes breathe can sharpen — or dull — their edge.

And athletes aren’t the only ones affected. Large crowds, increased traffic, and winter weather conditions can also shape the air quality experienced by spectators, workers, and surrounding communities. These events don’t just unfold in an environment — they temporarily reshape it.

We’re only beginning to understand how deeply air quality influences performance, recovery, and health, both on and off the field. But one thing is already clear: clean air is closely tied to how we function, focus, and feel.

Here’s wishing you a warm, cozy weekend — whatever sport you’re cheering for, and wherever you’re watching from.

REFERENCES

¹ Humphreys BR and Ruseski JE. (December 2023). Air quality and employee performance in teams: Evidence from the NFL. Economics & Human Biology. 51, 101310. doi: 10.1016/j.ehb.2023.101310.

² Heintz EC, Scott DP, Simms KR, Foreman JJ. (2022 December 28). Air Quality Is Predictive of Mistakes in Professional Baseball and American Football. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 20(1):542. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20010542. 

³ John G, Semenova EA, Mohamed DA, et al. Air Pollution and Its Impact on Health and Performance in Football Players. Sports (Basel). 2025 May 30;13(6):170. doi: 10.3390/sports13060170. 

⁴ Watanabe N, Yan G, McLeod C. (2025 May 30). The Impact of Sporting Events on Air Pollution: An Empirical Examination of National Football League Games. Sustainability. 15(6):5568. doi: 10.3390/su15065568.

⁵ Air pollution fluctuations over the Po Valley. (2024 February 13). European Space Agency. https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/Air_pollution_fluctuations_over_the_Po_Valley.