This post was authored by Dick Kovacs, MD, FACC, former chair of the ACC Board of Governors and co-chair of the Sports and Exercise Cardiology Council and Section.

The 2012 Olympic Games in London kick-off today, and as we all prepare to root for our respective teams, this is a time where the field of Sports and Exercise Cardiology will inevitably be in the spotlight.

TheHeart.org reported, “at least four elite athletes have been felled by sudden cardiac death in recent months ... the media attention these events have garnered has inflamed the controversy over whether better preparticipation screening would have prevented any of the deaths or whether the time has come for nations and health organizations to agree on a universal approach. And although cardiac events at past Olympic Games have been rare, they're not unheard of.”

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has recommended that all countries screen their athletes to minimize the risk of sudden death. However, as Dr. Bove stated in a previous blog post, both the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association agree that the mandatory screening of all young athletes with an ECG is not warranted based on cost (due to the large number of tests that would be required), the low incidence of sudden death among athletes in the U.S., as well as the concern for false positive results.

The next few weeks will be exciting nonetheless watching some of the most talented athletes of our time competing for the gold.

A recently published perspective in the New England Journal of Medicine by David S. Jones, MD, PhD, notes, “One thing is certain: the Olympics will remain an object of medical fascination."

Stay tuned to the ACC in Touch Blog and ACC’s Facebook page for the latest cv news from the Olympic Games! Also next week on the blog Dr. Christine Lawless will be giving an update from the Knowledge Olympics which just wrapped up this week.