Body composition comparison in two elite female wheelchair athletes.

It was the purpose of this study to determine body composition by two methods in two excellent female athletes. One sportswoman (SRH) was national wheelchair marathon champion in 1977 in 3 hours, 40 minutes on the Boston course. She still competes internationally and has won three gold medals and set three world records in the last Olympiad for the handicapped in 1980. The second woman athlete (LSJ) competes in wheelchair basketball and track on a national level. Body density was determined by the standard underwater weighing procedure and residual volume determination. A second method to calculate cellular body mass was the measure of potassium 40 (40K) activity by whole body scintillation counter. The characteristics of these athletes are listed as follows: (formula; see text) The results show that both methods of determining adiposity produce results differing by only one percentage point. It is important to determine body composition in these wheelchair athletes since their cellular body mass is decreased because of their disability.