Athletics: Olympic athletes ready to beat the sun

By EUGENE BINGHAM

New Zealand Olympic athletes will use an armoury of cooling devices and techniques to beat the dusty heat of Athens next month.

Misting fans and temperature-controlling jackets will help, but no matter how it's looked at, it will be hot - damn hot.

Greece is dampening down talk that the Olympics will be too hot, and athletes say they are prepared for the conditions.

But 40C is 40C - and that's the temperature expected some days.

Team chef de mission Dave Currie said the climate could not be used as an excuse.

"One of the great things about the Olympics is that the date, time and conditions are known years in advance, so in that sense there's no surprises," said Currie.

"We've known for a long time that it's going to be 40C and dry."

The Academy of Sport has made sure individual sports briefed athletes on how to cope.

Marty Toomey, a senior high performance adviser with the academy, said that for many elite athletes who competed in Europe often, the heat was nothing to be concerned about.

"The ones who are going to feel it most are the likes of the hockey players who have to front up every second day or so in the heat," he said.

"For most of the athletes, it's a one-off event in the heat."

Toomey said the body could acclimatise within seven to 10 days, but if athletes did not get used to the conditions, they could suffer.

"The basketballers, for instance, will be training and competing in air-conditioned venues but even sports like that need to make sure they get there early."

Otherwise, lethargy brought on by the Mediterranean sun could be a problem.

Some athletes, including the hockey players, canoeists and rowers, will use cooling vests and jackets to help.

"They cool the core temperature of the body down during warm-ups and cool downs so you almost trick the body into thinking its cooler than it is," said Toomey.

The team's uniform supplier, Orca, has designed a saltwater-proof cooling vest for the sailors.

Orca's marketing manager Julian Smith says it is filled with crystals that once dunked in water will retain the cool temperature and help keep sailors comfortable before and after races.

Smith said the company had worked closely with athletes to make sure all the garments were designed to thwart the heat.

Many are made of a polyester fabric that draws sweat away from the skin.

Top equestrian Blyth Tait said the New Zealanders were used to dealing with heat after competing in Atlanta and Barcelona.

The team would take its horses to Athens just before the competition because it was too difficult to acclimatise them.

"You'd have to take them in months and months before," said Tait.

The Athens organising committee has been quick to defend its city's climate, saying that by comparison it will be cooler than Atlanta.