Tag Archive for 'Tokyo 2020'

The hottest Olympics in history will take place in Tokyo 2020, from 22 July to 9 August, with a risk of over 90% and similar to that of desert areas, with conditions of thermal stress that cannot be compensated by the human body measured by an index called Wbgt (wetbulb globe temperature), with which the risks are also assessed for the army. At risk, it’s not only the quality of the performances but above all the health of the athletes. For road runners, the nightmare of the Doha World Cup will be repeated. But the same problem will also be faced by athletes in sports that are apparently less challenging from the motor point of view, such as precision sports (archery, shooting and golf) where the combination of humidity and heat will be devastating and will cause extreme stress for the body (just think of the difficulty of the heart rate, a decisive aspect in these performances) and for the mind, which will have to find solutions to these physiological reactions, absolutely unusual and healthy.

Many athletes are using a new device: E-Celsius. A capsule to swallow with a sophisticated thermometer of 17 millimeters and 1.7 grams of weight. Inside, one silver oxide battery powers a sensor, whose vibrations vary with every slightest change in the temperature of the intestine and are transmitted to an external pc. In this way, the vital parameters of the athletes will be constantly monitored and in the presence of significant changes the athletes will be stopped.

The governor of Tokyo Yuriko Koike said that “it is as if Tokyo was immersed in a permanent sauna, every day”. Concern also for the public, “certainly not trained like the athletes.” For this reason some interventions have already been planned: on more than 100 kilometers of roads will be sprayed with a product that repels heat and ultraviolet rays, to reduce the heat “of eight degrees Celsius,” said Koike. But it may not be enough. Tokyo’s 2020 president, Yoshiro Mori, has asked Prime Minister Abe to take a measure to optimize the hours of light and to take advantage of the early morning hours for outdoor sports.

In 1964, in the  previous Games in Tokyo, to solve this problems  it was decided to have the games play in October, but in 2020, the Olympic games are driven by the laws of business and, therefore, the date change is not possible.