To assess the validity of postexercise measurements in estimating peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak) in swimming, we compared oxygen uptake (VO2) measurements during supramaximal exercise with various commonly adopted methods, including a recently developed heart rate — VO2 modelling procedure. Thirty-one elite swimmers performed a 200-m maximal swim where VO2 was measured breath-by-breath using a portable gas analyzer connected to a respiratory snorkel, 1 min before, during, and 3 min postexercise. VO2peak(-20-0) was the average of the last 20 s of effort. The following postexercise measures were compared: (i) first 20-s average (VO2peak(0-20)); (ii) linear backward extrapolation (BE) of the first 20 s (BE(20)), 30 s, and 3 × 20-, 4 × 20-, and 3 or 4 × 20-s averages; (iii) semilogarithmic BE at 20 s (LOG(20)) and at the other same time intervals as in linear BE; and (iv) predicted V?O2peak using mathematical modelling (pVO2(0-20)]. Repeated-measures ANOVA and post-hoc Bonferroni tests compared V?O2peak (criterion) and each estimated value. Pearson`s coefficient of determination (r2) was used to assess correlation. Exercise VO2peak(-20-0) (mean ± SD 3531 ± 738 mL/min) was not different (p > 0.30) from pVO2(0-20) (3571 ± 735 mL/min), BE(20) (3617 ± 708 mL/min), or LOG(20) (3627 ± 746 mL/min). pVO2(0-20) was very strongly correlated with exercise VO2peak (r2 = 0.962; p < 0.001), and showed a low standard error of the estimate (146 mL/min, 4.1%) and the lowest mean difference (40 mL/min; 1.1%). We confirm that the new modelling procedure based on postexercise VO2 and heart rate measurements is a valid and accurate procedure for estimating V?O2peak in swimmers and avoids the estimation bias produced by other methods.
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