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ABSTRACT
International sporting competitions, including the Paralympic Games, are increasingly being held in hot and/or humid environmental conditions. Thus, a greater emphasis is being placed on preparing athletes for the potentially challenging environmental conditions of the host cities, such as the upcoming Games in Tokyo in 2020. However, evidence-based practices are limited for the impairment groups that are eligible to compete in Paralympic sport. This review aims to provide an overview of heat-related issues for Paralympic athletes alongside current recommendations to reduce thermal strain and technological advancements in the lead up to the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. When competing in challenging environmental conditions, a number of factors may contribute to an athlete’s predisposition to heightened thermal strain. These include the characteristics of the sport itself (type, intensity, duration, modality, and environmental conditions), the complexity and severity of the impairment and classification of the athlete. For heat vulnerable Paralympic athletes, strategies such as the implementation of cooling methods and heat acclimation can be used to combat the increase in heat strain. At an organizational level, regulations and specific heat policies should be considered for several Paralympic sports. Both the utilization of individual strategies and specific heat health policies should be employed to ensure that Paralympics athletes’ health and sporting performance are not negatively affected during the competition in the heat at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.
KEYWORDS:
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Dr Steve Faulkner for proofreading the manuscript.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Abbreviations
| AB | = | able-bodied |
| ACSM | = | American College of Sports Medicine |
| CP | = | cerebral palsy |
| IAAF | = | International Association of Athletics Federations |
| IPC | = | International Paralympic Committee |
| HA | = | heat acclimation |
| MS | = | multiple sclerosis |
| RH | = | relative humidity |
| SCI | = | spinal cord injury |
| WBGT | = | wet bulb globe temperature |
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Katy E. Griggs
Katy Griggs is a Lecturer in Sport Engineering at Nottingham Trent University. She previously worked as a researcher and undertook her PhD at the Peter Harrison Centre for Disability Sport (School of Sport and Exercise and Health Sciences, Loughborough University) and the Environmental Ergonomics Research Centre (Design School, Loughborough University). Her research focuses on exercise and environmental physiology, Paralympic sport and human performance.
Ben T. Stephenson
Ben Stephenson is a physiologist at the English Institute of Sport and postdoctoral research assistant at School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences (Peter Harrison Centre for Disability Sport), Loughborough University. His research has focussed on thermoregulation and heat adaptation in Paralympic athletes.
Michael J. Price
Dr Mike Price is a Reader in Exercise Physiology at Coventry University. He has published over 80 peer reviewed journal articles and book chapters across a number of sport and exercise science subject areas including thermoregulation in upper body exercise in both able-bodied and individuals with a spinal cord injury. He has also published in the applied physiology of fencing, equestrian athletes and wheelchair athletes, being involved in specific Paralympic projects prior to the Atlanta (1996), Athens (2004) and Rio (2016) Games.
Victoria L. Goosey-Tolfrey
Professor Vicky Tolfrey is the Director of the Peter Harrison Centre for Disability Sport which is based within the School of Sport and Exercise and Health Sciences at Loughborough University. Vicky is an accredited British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences (BASES) physiologist and has provided applied sport science support to Paralympic athletes since 1994, she has attended numerous Paralympic Games as a sports science practitioner.