KEY POINTS:
You're an athlete heading for next year's Beijing Olympics. What's your biggest concern?
Getting through the first round? Making the final? Failing to live up to yours or the country's expectations?
For many it will be how to cope with the rigours of the Chinese city's notorious pollution
and still perform at an optimum level.
A series of test events are being staged in Beijing in August, 12 months out from the Games.
The main purpose is to give facilities a thorough dry run but it will also give athletes likely to be competing there an early look.
New Zealand's Olympic medical officials will be taking a close look at how athletes cope with air which can do considerable harm, especially to asthmatics and those with other health issues.
"Undoubtedly August is going to be a challenge," said Lynne Coleman, head of the New Zealand team's medical staff.
They will expect heat and humidity. Athletes can learn to cope with them. Her belief is pollution on top of the other two factors raises serious concerns.
"You need a certain amount of time in hot, humid climates to acclimatise. What you can't acclimatise for is pollution and I think that's the athletes' No 1 concern with Beijing."
Studies around the time of the Sydney Olympics in 2000 revealed an inordinate number of athletes from the Oceania region suffered from asthma or had asthma-type conditions.
Coleman believes about 10-15 per cent of New Zealand athletes who will go to Beijing might fit the at-risk category. Extensive testing of any athlete considered a chance to get a trip to the Games is planned for this year in a bid to tick off possible health risks.
Coleman and her team will await with interest the results of studies to be done on the quality of the air and athletes next August.
"It's pretty subjective but it's important information to have. If athletes get into trouble, what exactly is it - respiratory or general unwellness?" Coleman said.
One respected medical voice adopting Corporal Jones' "don't panic" philosophy is Dave Gerrard, former Commonwealth Games swimming gold medallist and chairman of the therapeutic use exemptions subcommittee of the World Anti Drug Agency (Wada).
"The jury is still out as to how polluted and difficult it's going to be for athletes," Gerrard said. "We had the exact same concerns going to places like Los Angeles (1984) and Seoul (1988), places where we were told we'd be struggling to find a molecule of oxygen."
Gerrard's subcommittee handles all applications from athletes seeking exemptions to use prohibited medication. A simple note from the friendly GP won't cut it; validated backing from approved testing facilities is required.
Wada handles drug issues for 47 months in every four-year period. In the Olympic month it falls to the International Olympic Committee. Gerrard said meetings are planned between the two bodies to ensure "everybody is whistling the same tune and that athletes and medical advisers are not going to be led up the garden path so athletes arrive with incorrect TUEs [therapeutic use exemptions] or unsubstantiated claims for use of these drugs".
Gerrard is a staunch supporter of athletic welfare. Equally he appreciates there's a reason drugs are on the banned list. All asthmatic drugs are banned, but four have been set aside for use in Beijing, the best known being Ventolin, providing athletes produce the evidence they need it.
"Anybody who justifiably needs their drugs need have no concern. The one overriding fact for me is the health of the athletes, above all else," he said.
Gerrard and Coleman share the view that all countries will face similar problems and a positive philosophy will be important.
"You've got to make the best of the job," Gerrard said, "because it's going to be the same for everyone."
