Biological Experience of the Psychological Effects of COVID-19 Disease in Iranian Professional Athletes

Background & Aims: Mental health plays a very important role in individual relationships and its importance is shown in how family relationships and social activities and other aspects of life (1). The study of psychological issues in sports has a long history and researchers in sports have always tried to find evidence in this regard (6). Among the psychological domains and dimensions, some variables play a more important role among athletes and overshadow their athletic performance (7). This is due to the important role of psychological issues in the performance of athletes. Another thing that seems to affect psychological characteristics is physical condition and illness. One of these diseases is COVID-19, which the World Health Organization announced in 2020 that this virus is similar to the Sars virus (this virus existed between 2002-2003 and left about 8000 cases of infection and 800 deaths). and MERS virus (this virus was reported in 2012, which caused about 2,500 infections and 800 deaths) (8). The widespread spread of this virus has caused major concerns worldwide (9). Another thing that seems to affect psychological characteristics is physical condition and illness. One of these diseases is COVID-19, which has caused disorders in people's lives due to economic, social, occupational and psychological problems (10). Meanwhile, professional athletes have also experienced major problems in their training during the COVID-19 virus crisis. This will undoubtedly have a negative effect on them mentally and will cause them to malfunction in the future. The uncertainty of the condition of some of the psychological effects of COVID-19 virus has led to the lack of evidence regarding the status of professional athletes in terms of psychological effects following the outbreak of COVID-19 virus. Therefore, the researcher is trying to answer the question: What are the psychological effects of COVID-19 disease in Iranian professional athletes? Methods: To conduct this research, which was carried out with a phenomenological qualitative method, 13 professional athletes in individual sports in the country and using purposive sampling method, 13 people were selected as a sample in the qualitative section. Then, in order to collect data from them, semi-structured interviews were conducted and coding was done in both primary and secondary forms. Results: After the interviews, the initial codes were identified that 24 codes in three dimensions of mental effects including codes (increased stress, reduced mental health, obsessive-compulsive disorder, increased anxiety, decreased attention, prevalence of depression, formation of mental fatigue, disorder) Fear, psychosis, creating negative emotions, frustration), behavioral effects including codes (creating obsessions, creating problems with sleep quality, decreased mood, insecure decision making, increased violence, decreased interpersonal emotions) and social effects including Codes (collectivism, low social skills, poor athletic performance, reduced capital, social distrust, extreme isolation and family conflicts). The significance coefficient of each code is give