Footnotes

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• Acknowledgements The authors extend their special thanks to the swimmers who participated in the cardiac screening project in Doha. We thank you for bringing your hearts to us for assessment! They are also thankful to the cardiac team at Aspetar, under the research leadership of Nathan Riding, and the clinical expertise of Dr Antonio Pelliccia of Rome for their pioneering vision and proficiency as the authors peered into the ‘unknown’ hearts of elite swimmers. They are appreciative of the international experts of the FINA Injury and Illness Methodology Expert Working Group under the scientific leadership of Astrid Junge and moderator Karim Khan, for sharing their time and expertise in the quest to improve the monitoring of aquatic athlete health. They gratefully acknowledge the FINA Sports Medicine Committee for their collaboration and the medical team of Aspetar that took special care of the FINA Family during the FINA World Championships 2014.

• Contributors MM made substantial contributions to conception and design, coordination of the paper, drafting and revising of the manuscript, and gave approval of the final version to be published. HPD made substantial contributions to design, drafting and revising of the manuscript, and gave approval of the final version to be published.

• Competing interests None declared.

• Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.