It’s not just the humidity. It’s the heat. Olympic athletes and officials are trying everything, including the garden hose, to deal with the oppressive and harmful Paris temperatures. Not that this is a surprise to anyone. In case you missed it, here’s my previous post about heat and the Paris Olympics : The Paris Olympics: a hot and inequitable playing field
Right now, athletes are wearing ice vests and taking ice baths, spectators are standing under water misting stations, and all competitors are taking extra water breaks. And not just the humans. Horses participating in the equestrian events are at risk.
Horses are being monitored using thermal imaging technology to detect and prevent overheating, with strategically placed shade tents, misting fans and mobile cooling units also scattered around the Palace of Versailles.
Heat-related risk and illness during the Olympics is nothing new. The Japan Olympic athletics battled similar heat problems. And in many cases, the heat won. Below are excerpts from a 2022 article published about medical services provided during the 2020 Olympic marathon and race walking events in Sapporo, Japan.
The 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo… led the organizing committee to relocate the race walk and marathon competitions to Sapporo, which was predicted to experience much milder heat. Nonetheless, during the Games, Sapporo recorded the highest daytime ambient temperature in the past 97 years, with consecutive days over 30°C from July 22nd to August 7th, 2021.
Five events (men’s and women’s 20 km race walk, men’s 50 km race walk, women’s and men’s marathon) were held in Sapporo from August 5th to August 8th, 2021. The percentage of athletes who did not finish (DNF) in each event was
- 8.8% in men’s 20 km race walk
- 20.3% in men’s 50 km race walk
- 8.6% in women’s 20 km race walk
- 17.1% in women’s marathon
- 28.3% in men’s marathon
A total of fifty athletes were transferred to the athlete medical station: 28 athletes completed the race (i.e., collapsed after finish line), while 24 were DNF athletes transported from the course. Forty-eight (96%) of athletes who were admitted to the athlete medical station exhibited signs and symptoms of exertional heat illness.
Even though the 2020 Olympic organizers moved some events to what was historically a cooler locale, we can see in this graph below how past temperature averages don’t guarantee future ones.
As we see above, the actual Sapporo race day temps were not only higher than the historical average for that venue, some of them were higher than Tokyo averages. As much as officials try to plan, the heat sometimes comes out ahead.
What to do about this? By “this” we could mean:
- responding to global climate change
- scheduling future viable Olympic competitions
- engaging in non-harmful outdoor physical activity in summer
- keeping our cool amidst all this weather uncertainty
We are all looking for answers to all of these questions. In Paris, they’re doing the best they can to support the athletes, officials and spectators. It’s not looking like it’s enough, though.
Readers, do you have any views about future Olympics? Should they be moved to spring or fall? Traditionally cooler locations? Should we reconfigure them in new ways (e.g. divide them up according to outside vs. inside sports)? I’d love to hear your ideas.
