Some basic haematological characteristics of a group of competitive swimmers were compared with haematological “normal standards” and with a “control” group of non-athletes, unmatched for age. In the women, the values for red blood cell count, haemoglobin concentration, and mean red cell volume for both the swimmers and the controls were not significantly different from the normal standards. In the groups of men, both swimmers and controls, red cell counts were significantly lower than the normal standard values, although individual values lay within the “normal range” (mean ± 2 standard deviations).
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