Summary:
Rhythmic Gymnastics is an aesthetic event balancing between art and sport. It
has a perfomance rating system ( Code of points) and it is one of the sports
which competition results greatly depend on th judges' evaluation. The main
cause for unintensional mistakes of the judges in the rating is the fatigue of
the judges.
Stress is a fundamental process. The human stress response involves complex
signaling pathway among neurons, somatic cells and chemical interactions to
keep the homeostasis. Cortisol, is an important indicator of stress, and its
secretion presents secretory spikes, especially in the morning hours and weaker
in the evening and as a result at the first eight hours of the morning, it is
secreted 70% of the total amount of cortisol produced the whole 24 hours of the
day. Oxytocin, is a neurohypophysial peptide which is produced in the
paraventricular nuclei of the hypothalamus and is called th “ love” hormone
responsible for the feelings of joy and euphoria ( for example at women eho
breastfeed a.o.), but also is released by the pituitary gland in response to
various stressful stimuli, including pain, fear and exposure to an unfamiliar
environment. The purpose of this study is to find the stress responses of the
judges of Rhythmic Gymnastics at the beginning of the competition and then in
the end after fourteen hours under stressful conditions, full of work and
judging, estimating how the fatigue and the pressure of the workload can affect
the stress hormones. We measured 17 judges, by taken samples of saliva, and
applied the competitive immunoassay ( ELISA) using ELISA kits for cortisol and
oxytocin. Also, they answered the scientific questionnaire for assessing
depression and stress, the Anxiety Inventory ( Laux 1981) and the Self- Rating
Depression Scale( Zung 1965).
The results show decline of the cortisol levels after the competition from
4,68+- 1,29 ng/ml to 3,37+- 0,64ng/ml (t-test: 0,0004), because of the biorhyth
and the secretion of the hormone, but the decline was not so great as others
studies found for people under normal conditions. Oxytocin levels were, also,
lower at the end of the competition, 0,74+- 0,47 ng/ml to 0,51+- 0,36 ng/ml
(t-test:0,012), as the contents of the judges' work is not based on positive
procedures and euphoria, but instead it provokes stress. According to Pearson's
method, the flunctuation between the two hormones for each judge seperately
shows no statistical significant negative correlation as it was expected. The
average score for the judges at the Anxiety Inventory was normal, < 70 ( 100th
percentile).
Keywords:
Stress hormones, Judges, Rhythmic gymnastics, Cortisol, Oxytocin
