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Athlete or Season? Gut Microbiota Variance in Elite Volleyball Players: A Compositional Performance-Based Reanalysis
Junior Carlone1,2,3, Giovanni Solarino4, Saverio Giampaoli2
1Department of Neurosciences, Biomedicine and Movement, University of Verona, 37134 Verona, Italy.
Sports (Basel, Switzerland)
|July 27, 2026
Summary
Elite volleyball athletes
Area of Science:
- Sports Science
- Microbiome Research
- Data Analysis
Background:
- Gut microbiota influences athletic performance, but studies face methodological challenges.
- Compositional data and standardized metrics are lacking in team sports research.
- This study introduces a novel Technical Performance Level (TPL) metric.
Purpose of the Study:
- Investigate longitudinal gut microbiota dynamics in elite volleyball players.
- Apply Compositional Data Analysis (CoDA) with ANOVA-Simultaneous Component Analysis (ASCA).
- Correlate microbial features with a new objective performance metric (TPL).
Main Methods:
- Seven elite male volleyball athletes monitored across four timepoints.
- Fecal samples analyzed using 16S rRNA metabarcoding.
- CoDA framework (ASCA) applied to CLR-transformed data; Freedman-Lane test for significance.
Main Results:
- Player and Season effects were significant across all taxonomic levels (p ≤ 0.0004).
- Player identity explained most variance (51.31% Family, 50.75% Genus).
- No significant association found between microbial features and TPL.
Conclusions:
- CoDA framework alters interpretation of gut microbiota in elite athletes.
- Individual athlete identity is a major driver of microbiota composition.
- Exploratory analyses suggest no direct link between gut microbes and TPL in this cohort.
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