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The Climate Question: How are athletes adapting to extreme heat?

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30/06/2024 GMT

How are athletes adapting to extreme heat?

BBC World Service - The Climate Question, How are athletes adapting to extreme heat?

Olympians and sports officials are worried about intense heat at this year's Paris games

Olympians and sports officials are worried about the possibility of intense heat at this year's Paris games. Qasa Alom finds out how elite competitors are preparing.

The Paris Olympics are less than a month away. The last games in Tokyo were one of the hottest on record, with more than a hundred athletes suffering heat-related illnesses. And France, the host of this year’s Olympiad, is no stranger to heatwaves – the country has seen 23 since 2010.  

So how are top athletes training their bodies to not only perform at their best in high temperatures, but also to protect their health? Presenter Qasa Alom heads inside a sweltering, state of the art heat chamber at Leeds Beckett University to find out how one of the fastest marathon runners in Britain, Phil Sesemann, is maximising his chances of success in his Olympic debut.  

Other athletes are more used to these conditions. We join India’s top triathlete, Pragnya Mohan, for a training run and hear what it’s like to compete when the thermometer climbs above 45 degrees Celsius.  

More and more athletes are adopting heat training strategies in a warming world - but do they affect men and women the same? Dr Jessica Mee, Research Fellow at the University of Worcester tells us about her pioneering research into the impacts of heat on women’s bodies.  

Featuring: 
Dan Snapes, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Sports and Excercise Physiology at Leeds Beckett University 
Phil Sesemann, Team GB Olympic marathon runner 
Pragnya Mohan, Indian National Champion and South Asian Champion triathlete 

Email us at: theclimatequestion@bbc.com 

Producer: Sophie Eastaugh 
Editor: Simon Watts 
Sound Engineer: Tom Brignell 
Production Coordinator: Brenda Brown

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