The hottest day in history occurred a few days before the official start of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. USA Rugby Sevens player Lucas Lacamp was prepared.
“We did a lot of heat acclimatization. We would try to go into a sauna as quickly as we could after practice, and we trained in 90 degrees plus on a daily basis,” he says.
Having spent his early years in Hong Kong, and more recent ones in California, Lacamp knew what he needed to do to compete in the heat. That included a cold shower and ice bath to lower his body temperature after a game. At the Paris Olympics, the bigger challenge for him was game rescheduling, which meant playing late at night. But he coped, even with the cardboard beds in the athletes’ sleeping quarters.
“We were ready,” he says
Dealing with adverse conditions
Doctors and athletes alike agree that proper preparation is essential to combat climate change's effect on health and performance.
"Every year at competitions we have to adapt and understand, plan, and strategize for different environments, different weather, and different events,” says Chief Clinical Officer, Dartmouth Health, Edward J. Merrens, MD, MHCDS. Merrens has served as team physician with the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee, medical director for the USA Biathlon, and team physician for the Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Torino, Vancouver, and Sochi.
“We have to adjust, to mitigate the uncontrolled,” agrees Sports Medicine Physician, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, Kristine A. Karlson, MD, who is also the head team physician at Dartmouth College and has been a team physician with US Rowing for more than 25 years, including at Beijing’s 2008 Olympics.
Given the Seine’s water, the heat dome, and the anticipated poor air quality, the Paris 2024 Olympics has proved to be no exception.
Olympians know how to train for heat
“If you're an everyday exerciser, you should not choose to go out in the hottest part of the day and exercise. But when you're an athlete who's competing in the Summer Olympics, where the television cameras and TV schedule dictate competition, you don't have a choice,” says Karlson.
At the last Summer Olympics, the importance of preparation was not unoverlooked by U.S. rower Brooke Mooney.
Mooney got accustomed to the forecasted high temperatures at Tokyo’s Olympic Games during team selection and summer training in Princeton, New Jersey. There, she learned to manage her body temperature, keep hydrated, and how best to recover after rowing in the heat. She carried liquid in her boat, wore an ice vest, and put ice in her clothing and under her hat. She also experienced what happens when blood sugar levels drop and learned to optimally manage pre-workout hydration and nutrition.
Merrens and Karlson say that this kind of learned awareness is essential for elite athletes. “There's a lot of work around hydration, electrolyte loss, nutrition and a range of things. So, for the most part, these athletes are really used to monitoring their bodies,” says Merrens.
Different athletes develop different methods to cope
How these athletes meet those needs is not one size fits all. Their race day regime is tried and tested.
“Some of the Australians and New Zealanders over the years have used slushy machines and Gatorade slushies so they're cooling from the inside,” Karlson points out. “But you don't drink your first-ever Gatorade slushy and then go out and race in the Olympics because what if your stomach goes haywire?”
What athletes do to stay cool competing depends on their sport
To deal with the heat at this year’s Paris Olympics, sailors competed in iced vests.
“But for many sports, quite obviously, you can't compete in an ice vest,” says Karlson. “You're not going to wear your ice vest when you're running the 1500 meter. You might wear it to cool down your core right before you start.”
In some sports, like rowing, you might put on an ice vest after racing to cool your body temperature quickly and safely.
“You want to get it back down and make sure you're hydrating and refueling because you don’t realize how much liquid you are losing—not just water but also electrolytes,” Mooney says.
“Recovery is just as important as training and competition,” Merrens points out.
Heat is not the only challenge for Olympians
In addition to heat, there are other hurdles Olympians must overcome.
“Part of their work up into being on an Olympic team is all of the travel issues, all of the heat tolerance issues, all of the illness issues. It's so important to have been in a similar situation before and to figure out how you deal with that. For the Beijing Olympics, many U.S. teams traveled first to Korea so that they were in Asia already, so they had already gotten through the 12 to 13-hour time difference, and they were training in the heat,” says Karlson.
For winter Olympians, being able to acclimate is important, too.
“Skiers can be in Colorado Springs and train at a different altitude, a different air, a different room. They can change the entire temperature of the room in which they train,” Merrens says.
Some challenges athletes cannot prepare for
Polluted waters are one condition athletes cannot train for, and air quality is another. Mitigating these health risks often comes down to the organizer.
Both Merrens and Karlson say training in these conditions is damaging to an athlete’s health and does not improve performance.
How the Olympic Games might adapt
A changing climate and the resulting health risks are now an Olympic reality. As temperatures rise and air and water is polluted, adaptations are being made in training and at the event itself.
In the future, says Karlson, one result may be moving more sports to alternative venues rather than keeping all at one central location where higher temperatures or polluted waters may exist. “We will have to adjust,” she says.
Merrens agrees, but he is still optimistic that athletes and event organizers will find ways to adapt.
“We're all gonna have to be more resilient. Athletes are pretty good about that. It's easy to get really down about the state of sports through the lens of politics and how things are changing. To be in awe, I think that's what sport is about. When you see Katie Ledecky or Simone Biles, it does restore hope in a lot of ways.”
In the meantime, caution Karlson and Merrens, the rest of us are best served to remember that training or competing in challenging climate conditions such as extreme heat should remain reserved for elite athletes.