How athletes are tackling the Tokyo temperatures
With the pandemic limiting foreign travel, the English Institute of Sport (EIS) were forced to think outside the box, or inside the tent, to come up with an alternative way to prepare British athletes for the hot and humid conditions they will experience at this summer’s Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo.
Working closely with Team GB and GB Hockey, the EIS physiology and innovation teams came up with the idea of using outdoor heat tents to acclimatise athletes to the high temperatures while maintaining a Covid-safe environment.
In the grounds of Bisham Abbey, the home of GB Hockey, individual heat tents have been erected to allow teams to train together in the heat, while the EIS’ indoor heat chambers remain unavailable to team sports due to Covid protocols.
Explaining the science behind the project, EIS Senior Performance Innovation Consultant Victoria Downie said: “We have heat chambers at our different EIS sites across the country, but because of Covid-19, we’re very limited in their use.
“We’ve set up these individual heat tents, so the athletes are in their own confined space where they can get hot and humid while they’re exercising.
“We’re measuring their core body temperature throughout their time in the tents. That’s for two reasons; firstly, for safety, it’s really important that we know how hot the athletes are to look after their health and safety.
“Also, we want to make sure that they’re getting hot enough to give them enough of a heat stimulus for the physiological adaptation we’re looking for ahead of Tokyo.”
Temperatures inside the tents can range from 35 to 50 degrees and the humidity rises from around 30 per cent to 80 per cent by the end of the session.
The recently selected Team GB men’s and women’s hockey teams are the second group of athletes after the women’s football team to have access to these tents.
They spend approximately an hour at a time in the gruelling conditions to help prepare them for the Games, with temperatures expected to regularly reach the high 30s in Japan.
Anna Toman, a defender for GB Hockey, said: “We’re hugely honoured to be able to use these and as athletes, it’s hugely important that we prepare in the best way.
“It’s just getting our bodies used to being in that heat. Obviously, living in Britain, we do not experience that, and as a squad we haven’t experienced it for a very long time because we haven’t been able to travel.
“Something like this is going to help us hugely, we go in there and our bodies get used to being at that temperature for that amount of time.
“It’s hugely important for us to be able to experience this before we go out to Tokyo.”
For the women’s hockey team this work at Bisham Abbey represents their final preparations before they head out to the Olympics, and Team GB’s Deputy Chef de Mission, Paul Ford, is clear about the importance of the tents.
“The Tokyo Games have been six years in the planning, and we’ve been really drilling into the importance of getting the team ready for such an event,” he said.
“A huge part of the preparation is actually making sure the athletes are fit and ready for the Tokyo conditions.
“The English Institute of Sport have been fundamental. The work that these guys have been doing in the background, it’s absolutely critical and key to making sure that our athletes are ready to perform.”
Find out more about Team GB, visit www.teamgb.com
Find out more about GB Hockey, visit www.greatbritainhockey.co.uk