• Smoking keeps you from reaching your highest level of athletic performance.
• Smoking slows your reaction time.
• Smoking lessens your stamina.
• Smoking causes coughing and shortness of breath.
• Smoking decreases the oxygen carrying capacity of your blood.
• This causes the heart to work harder and increases your heart rate.
• The muscles have less oxygen and don’t function as well.
• People who smoke have more colds, sore throats and respiratory infections each year.
• Smoking delays healing of many common sports injuries.
• Smoking during the teenage years, slows the rate that the lungs grow.
• Smoking during adolescence causes deficits in lung function consistent with early signs of obstructive airway disease.

Reference

Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. Research and Data: Factsheets: Smoking and Decreased Physical Performance. Available at: http://tobaccofreekids.org/research/factsheets/