The head of the International Olympic Commission has moved to ally fears over the health of athletes competing in Beijing’s notoriously polluted air. You can exercise outside for at least an hour without ill effects, says IOC chief inspector Hein Verbruggen.
“The Chinese together with our medical commission have done an excellent job,” he told Reuters. “They have scientifically proved there is no risk for the wide majority of sports. There can be a risk, but it’s not big, for endurance events that last longer than an hour.”
This follows on from a statement released by the IOC last month, which got very little attention at the time. It stated: “For outdoor endurance events that include minimum one hour continuous physical efforts at high level – urban road cycling, mountain bike, marathon, marathon swimming, triathlon and road walk – the IOC Medical Commission’s findings indicated that there may be some risk.”
Verbruggen says some of these events could be delayed for a couple of days but things would have to be “very bad” for that to happen.
This is unlikely to reassure competitors who have already voiced fears about the pollution levels. Marathon record holder Haile Gebrselassie has already said he will only compete in the 10,000, as he fears the marathon would damage his health (he has asthma).
US Olympic runner Brian Sell said on Monday he’d still be running, but he is worried. “My main fear is that I go run this marathon and develop some long-term complication and it hampers me in future marathons,” says Sell (Boston Globe).
However, according to China Daily “66 percent of the investigated during a recent survey, done by the Gallup Poll, say the problem of the city’s air pollution has turned for the better, up significantly from 53 percent in 2006”.
Of course all those competing disciplines other than those mentioned might like to do some training outside, but it seems unlikely that a professional athlete would want to train for more than an hour a day… right?
Nature feature on the same topic from Athens: Olympics: Gasping for victory
Image: Comstock