VOA科学技术2024--Olympic Athletes Bring Cooling Technology to Paris Games

The 2024 Olympic Games open in Paris late next month and experts say especially hot summer weather is likely to return. Temperatures set record highs in Europe last summer and France's national weather agency says it expects warmer than normal conditions this year.

Such weather brings additional difficulty to the already punishing climate of physical competition. The Olympic athletes will have to pay more attention to their body temperatures as they train, recover and compete.

And the buildings in which athletes will stay during the event will not be equipped with air conditioning.

Craig Heller of Stanford University is an expert in body temperature regulation. Heller told the Reuters news agency, "It can be very hot and miserable¹ (in Paris), as it was in Tokyo during the last Olympics...And that increase in environmental temperature has lots of effects on performance."

Stanford University, in California's Bay Area, is well known for Olympic athletes. At least one medalist at every Games since 1912 has been linked with the school.

Stanford-connected athletes won 26 Olympic medals in the 2020 games in Tokyo and 27 in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

As a result, Heller and other researchers at the school have had the chance to study body temperature regulation. And the school's closeness to Silicon² Valley helped the tech industry enter the playing field.

Blood cooling

Heller co-invented CoolMitt, a device worn like a glove on the hand. The device helps take out heat while cooling the blood. The cooled blood is sent back to the heart and to the athlete's muscles.

It is designed to be used during timeouts in games, in between sets and reps in the gym, or any short break in training or competition.

"If you take heat out of the core of the body, that prevents heat from building up in the active muscles, and they keep on working," Heller said.

"So what CoolMitt does is prevents hyperthermia, rise in body temperature to a dangerous level. And therefore it enables you to have a higher work volume. And if you have a higher work volume, you get a bigger conditioning effect."

The CoolMitt targets the non-hairy parts of the skin that "contain specialized³ vascular⁴ structures" that ease heat loss, a study says.

Once inside the glove, the palm rests on a special pad set to 10 to 12 degrees Celsius⁵.

The pad draws the heat out while cooling the athlete's blood before it reaches the level of vasoconstriction, slowing the blood flow.

Tyler Friedrich of Stanford University works with athletes there, including some who went to Tokyo and are likely to go to Paris.

"We know if we are overheating, we will not be performing at the level that we want or that we should be. And so regulating heat and regulating core temperature in some instances can be critical" to performance, Friedrich said.

He said ice baths and cold cloths are often used by athletes but are not necessarily effective.

A recent study suggested further research was required to prove the efficacy of cold-water immersion⁶ practices.

Friedrich said the CoolMitt had made a difference.

"They (the athletes) notice themselves feeling like at the end of the game they have as much juice or jump in their legs as they did at the beginning," he said.

Words in This Story

air conditioning - n. a system used for cooling the air in a building or room

regulation - n. the act of maintaining temperature

miserable - adj. causing discomfort⁷

conditioning - n. the process of training to become physically⁸ fit by a routine of exercise and rest

vascular - adj. of, relating to a channel for the conveyance of a body fluid (such as blood)

1 miserable   

adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的

参考例句：

• It was miserable of you to make fun of him.你取笑他，这是可耻的。
• Her past life was miserable.她过去的生活很苦。

2 silicon   

n.硅(旧名矽)

参考例句：

• This company pioneered the use of silicon chip.这家公司开创了使用硅片的方法。
• A chip is a piece of silicon about the size of a postage stamp.芯片就是一枚邮票大小的硅片。

3 specialized   

adj.专门的，专业化的

参考例句：

• There are many specialized agencies in the United Nations.联合国有许多专门机构。
• These tools are very specialized.这些是专用工具。

4 vascular   

adj.血管的，脉管的

参考例句：

• The mechanism of this anomalous vascular response is unknown.此种不规则的血管反应的机制尚不清楚。
• The vascular changes interfere with diffusion of nutrients from plasma into adjacent perivascular tissue and cells.这些血管变化干扰了营养物质从血浆中向血管周围邻接的组织和细胞扩散。

5 Celsius   

adj.摄氏温度计的，摄氏的

参考例句：

• The temperature tonight will fall to seven degrees Celsius.今晚气温将下降到七摄氏度。
• The maximum temperature in July may be 36 degrees Celsius.七月份最高温度可能达到36摄氏度。

6 immersion   

n.沉浸；专心

参考例句：

• The dirt on the bottom of the bath didn't encourage total immersion.浴缸底有污垢，不宜全身浸泡于其中。
• The wood had become swollen from prolonged immersion.因长时间浸泡，木头发胀了。

7 discomfort   

n.不舒服，不安，难过，困难，不方便

参考例句：

• One has to bear a little discomfort while travelling.旅行中总要忍受一点不便。
• She turned red with discomfort when the teacher spoke.老师讲话时她不好意思地红着脸。

8 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。