Heat, humidity taking their toll on athletes at Beijing games
By Tim Johnson | McClatchy Newspapers
BEIJING _ If it's not the smog, it’s the heat and humidity.
The thick gray cap of haze over the Chinese capital abated slightly Saturday, but temperatures soared into the mid-90s, and some Olympic athletes wilted.
Several cyclists pulled out of the road race, unable to cope with the sticky heat, and a Swiss men's beach volleyball team resorted to a medical break to catch a brief respite from the sizzling sun and the high humidity that just wouldn’t allow sweat to evaporate.
"Playing at 12 o'clock in the middle of the day is not fun," said Australian Natalie Cook, drenched in sweat after coming off the beach volleyball court.
Luckily for the volleyball players, their matches are usually over in less than an hour and they can get out of the sun. Those engaged in outdoor endurance sports have no such luck.
Cyclists complained about the brutal heat on their 152-mile course that wended from near the Forbidden City in central Beijing out to the Great Wall in mountains north of the capital.
"It was a sauna out there. There was some head wind, too, so it wasn't easy," Latvian cyclist Raivis Belohvosciks told the Olympic News Service, the official news agency of the games.
An Argentine fellow cyclist, Juan Jose Haedo, described it like this: "It feels like you have hot cream all over your body. Once you go full gas, you cannot breathe."
Over at the National Stadium, temperatures climbed to 96 degrees Fahrenheit by 3 p.m., and even coaches complained about the stifling temperatures.
"The athletes are very tired. The weather is difficult weather. It's hot," Spain's race walking coach, Jose Marin, told the news service.
Many athletes were worried less about heat than air pollution upon arriving in Beijing, one of the most polluted cities in the world. Microscopic particles that comprise the city’s thick haze can aggravate those who suffer from asthma, and irritate eyes and nasal passages.
Beijing's air pollution index abated slightly to 78 Saturday, a drop from the 94 registered a day earlier. When the reading tops 100, sensitive groups including children and the elderly are advised to stay indoors.
A senior Chinese Olympics official, Wang Wei, asserted in a news conference that athletes would not suffer from breathing Beijing's air. "We are quite confident that the air quality will not have a negative impact on the athletes. I want to reassure all athletes that their health will not be harmed," Wei said.
Roald Bahr, a professor at the Norwegian School of Sports Sciences who also is a medical adviser to the international beach volleyball federation, said the combination of heat and humidity makes cooling down difficult.
"It’s not by sweating but by the sweat evaporating that you cool down," Bahr said. "When it's humid, the sweat doesn’t evaporate as quickly."
And humid it was. Humidity levels were at 86 percent along parts of the road racing course. At the beach volleyball stadium, humidity levels dropped from around 60 percent at noon to around 45 percent at mid-afternoon.
Not everyone was hot and bothered. Over at the Wukesong Baseball Field, player Alexei Bell described the weather as "good."
"The climate is the same as Cuba," Bell told the Olympic news service.
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