If you've ever attended a big indoor rowing competition, you're probably au fait with the fact that the end of a 2,000m race can often resemble a game of children's favourite Musical Slump To The Ground And Play Dead. Anyway, the exact reasons for this aren't especially clear. Sheena Privett, a Postgraduate Researcher working at Liverpool John Moores University, in collaboration with the British Olympic Association (BOA) and the Olympic Medical Institute (OMI) is hoping to shed some light on the subject. Her research involves the investigation of the incidence of pre-syncopal symptoms (lightheadedness, disorientation and collapse) and the incidence of syncopal episodes (a brief loss of consciousness) after exercise. According to Sheena: We think that these symptoms and episodes are common in well-trained and elite endurance athletes. They may occur when a person abruptly finishes exercise, but there is a lack of data of prevalence of these matters. It is within this period of inactivity after exercise that a gradual reduction in blood flow to the brain can occur. The human body is capable of telling us when this is happening, and this is when pre-syncopal symptoms and syncopal episodes can occur. An effective way of preventing these symptoms and episodes from occurring is to continue with some light exercise after an athlete's event or training session has finished. Alternatively, the athlete could lie down with their legs elevated when they have finished exercising.We have designed a questionnaire to enable me to gauge the occurrence of these symptoms and episodes, after exercise. The questions are designed to discover which symptoms athletes may experience; in which environments they have experienced them; and how often they may occur. The second part of the questionnaire studies the circumstances surrounding an athlete's loss of consciousness after exercise and how often this may occur. Finally, there are some questions regarding the athletes' and their immediate family's health backgrounds. Any data obtained from the completed questionnaire will be strictly confidential.As part of the research, they're asking newsletter readers to fill in the brief survey. They need as much data as possible, and it's just as important to record the number of people who have never experienced presyncope and syncope, as it is to record the number of people who have experienced them.You can find a copy of the questionnaire at http://www.therowingcompany.com/news/news.php?story=fainting