Air quality is an important factor when it comes to sportsmen. This is so because athletes and sportsmen need to maintain a greater level of fitness than an average individual in order to excel in a particular sport. These men and women aim at pushing the limits to which their bodies can operate and endure hardships while they perform in the field. In order to do what they do, they need to take special care of their physical bodies. Men and women involved in a professional career in sports need to observe their diet carefully, get regular exercise, and work an extra mile to always keep their energy levels high. In order to do that, they also need to regulate their breathing carefully as breathing is fundamentally important to body's energy levels. They need to breathe clean air that is necessary for the well being of their bodies, without which they won't be able to perform.     

However, in the recent times, there has been a surge in the levels of air pollution which certainly does not favor the cause of sportsmen. Various factors, including environmental changes, increased automobile emissions and industrial pollutants in the air and others have made it difficult for many sportsmen living in urban areas to breathe freely. Several of athletes have complained that they feel an increased urgency to come back home quickly after their morning rounds because the air gets heavier with pollutants as soon as daily communal activities commence in full swing.

Athletes are prone to suffer more from the complications of air pollution as they take in more air than an average human being. Their requirement of energy is higher, which is why many athletes are nowadays suffering from problems such as coughing and feeling out of breath. An increase in the number of automobiles produced every year has not really served the cause of the sportsmen and women as well.

Apart from the short term consequences, there are also those adverse health effects that can develop over a long term of exposure to harmful substances. Soot is air particles that have been known to cause heart attacks in women. The same has been said about smog, ground level ozone that can give rise to serious cardiovascular issues.

More and more professional sportsmen have sent official petitions to the governmental agencies to take care of this growing problem. As the air quality improves in the future, one can be hopeful that the sportsmen can have a better chance of having a cleaner health.