Gut microbiota and pre-competitive anxiety in high-performance taekwondo athletes during pre-competition training: an exploratory pilot study.

Objective: Gut microbiota has been implicated in exercise adaptation and emotional regulation, but evidence from high-performance athletes during closed pre-competition training remains limited. This exploratory pilot study examined changes in gut microbiota and competition anxiety across an 8-week pre-competition training period in high-performance taekwondo athletes and explored their associations. Methods: Eleven high-performance taekwondo athletes (6 men and 5 women) preparing for the 31st FISU World University Games were assessed before training and again at week 8. Stool samples were analyzed using 16S rRNA V3-V4 sequencing, and competition anxiety was measured with the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2). Given the small single-group repeated-measures design, all microbiome analyses were treated as exploratory. Paired Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were used for displayed pre-post comparisons, and PERMANOVA was applied to the reconstructed beta-diversity coordinate set. Results: Shannon alpha diversity showed no clear pre-post difference (Wilcoxon Conclusion: In this small single-group pilot cohort, the pre-competition period was accompanied by shifts in selected gut microbiota features and by higher pre-competition anxiety-related responses, particularly in the cognitive and somatic domains.