A nurse is assessing a client who is a professional athlete. Which of the following findings should the nurse expect?

A. Professional athletes typically maintain normal core body temperature at rest. While exercise generates heat, trained athletes also have efficient thermoregulatory mechanisms, including sweating and vasodilation, to prevent significant temperature drops. Hypothermia would be unexpected unless there is prolonged exposure to cold environments or a medical condition. B. Resting bradycardia is a common physiologic adaptation in athletes. Regular endurance training increases stroke volume and cardiac output efficiency, allowing the heart to pump the same or greater volume of blood with fewer beats per minute. Heart rates as low as 40–60 bpm at rest are often normal in highly conditioned athletes. This adaptation reduces cardiac workload and is not indicative of pathology. C. Well-conditioned athletes usually have normal or slightly lower blood pressure due to enhanced vascular compliance, reduced peripheral resistance, and improved cardiac efficiency. Hypertension in an athlete would be unexpected and could indicate underlying cardiovascular disease or secondary factors, rather than a normal physiologic finding. D. Healthy athletes maintain normal arterial oxygen saturation (95–100%) at rest. A reduction in oxygen saturation would suggest pulmonary, cardiac, or hematologic dysfunction, which is not expected in a well-trained professional athlete.