Form, condition & fatigue

An athlete’s raw attributes tell you how good they can be. Condition and form decide how good they are right now. Master both and you’ll have your best athletes peaking on the biggest days — the difference between a medal and an also-ran.

Condition — day-to-day freshness

Condition is short-term readiness, rated 0–100. It drains with hard training and competition, and recovers with rest and overnight. An athlete running low on condition performs below their level and is more likely to break down.

You manage condition through the intensity of their training, how often they compete, and the number of disciplines they compete in. Some athletes recover faster than others — a hidden quality that lets them absorb more work — but everyone needs rest eventually. Leaving training slots empty is the simplest way to let an athlete recover.

Form — the seasonal arc

Form is the bigger, slower story. It tracks how sharp an athlete is across a whole season:

• After the off-season, athletes start rusty and below their best.
• As they compete, form builds toward a peak.
• Hold that peak, and they’re at their sharpest.
• Compete too much and form declines — overtraining a peak away is a real risk.

The takeaway: form isn’t something you top up on demand. It’s built over weeks, and it can be lost. The goal is to have an athlete cresting at the right time, for the right competition.

Every athlete peaks differently

Here’s the part that rewards attention: each athlete has their own hidden form curve. Some are fast starters who peak early on a modest ceiling. Some are slow burners who take half a season to warm up but reach the highest peaks. Others hold a long, forgiving plateau, or spike to a sharp peak and then fall off a cliff.

None of this is shown to you directly — you learn it by watching. A manager who has figured out an athlete’s rhythm can time their peak for the championship days and playoffs, while a rival running the same athlete on autopilot arrives flat.

Attendance planning

You decide which days of the season each athlete actually competes. This is your main lever over form:

• Race too much, too early and they burn out before the events that matter.
• Race too little and they never build enough sharpness to peak.

Planning attendance around each athlete’s curve — building form through the early meets, then arriving fresh and sharp for the big finishes — is one of the most rewarding skills in the game.

Next: the calendar you’re peaking for — Competitions & the World Tour.