any scientific support for "warmdown" after athletic performance?

Is there any real scientific support for a “warmdown” or “cooldown” after a sports performance? I’ve been mentally sticking this in the same bucket as pre-game stretching (i.e. at best useless and possibly counterproductive), but I realized I don’t actually have a reason to think that.

The sports I care about are my daughter’s water polo and swimming, if that matters.

Not really much in the way of supportive evidence.