By Sybille de La Hamaide and Tassilo Hummel
PARIS (Reuters) – Tennis and soccer players are allowed water breaks, BMX riders sit under umbrellas in between runs and horses are being monitored with thermal cameras as the summer Olympics adapt to a heatwave that is hitting Paris and much of France.
At the Roland Garros tennis complex, just outside Paris, the temperature was due to peak at 37 degrees Celsius (98.6°F) on Tuesday.
Players were granted a 10-minute break between the second and third sets in singles, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) said, invoking a protocol based on the “Wet Bulb Globe Temperature” which measures potential heat stress in direct sunlight.
Players could use the break to have a shower, change their outfit, eat, drink or go to the bathroom but they could not have medical treatment or talk to their coach.
If the heat gets worse, a panel including the tournament referee and medical professionals could decide to suspend play.
In the soccer, with temperatures above 32 degrees Celsius, there are cooling breaks in both halves of a match.
At BMX freestyle events in Concorde square, in central Paris, riders stood under umbrellas, cooled by electric fans, with trainers applying ice.
HYDRATION FOR THE HORSES
It is not just the athletes who need protection from the fierce heat.
In Versailles, World Equestrian Federation FEI activated a special plan to protect the horses, the body’s chief veterinarian said, monitoring the animals with thermal cameras, cooling them if necessary and checking climate data.
Some of the muscular dressage horses weigh up to 750 kilos and need around 50 litres of water per day just for their basic body functions, FEI chief vet Goran Akerstrom told Reuters, saying hydration was key.
Some athletes did not mind the heat too much.
Australian BMX Freestyle rider Natalya Diehm said after qualifying for the finals: “We do have an advantage as Australians, over other countries, given the summers we have.”
Indoor sports faced less of an issue. At Lille’s Pierre Mauroy stadium in northern France, full-blast air conditioning meant basketball players did not feel the heat.
Spectators also found ways to cope.
“I feel like I’m in a sauna here,” Yamen Zang, 31, a Chinese, Paris-based financial analyst, said at Roland Garros. “I knew it would be like that, that’s why I took a hat, a fan and all that’s needed.”
“We knew it would be hot and that there is no shade on the(main court),” said 22-year old student Mathilde Landin, who was wearing a hat to protect herself from the sun as she watched the tennis. “So we took the whole kit: a fan, a small blower fan, water, suncream.”
British player Jack Draper, who went out in the second round, said the heat had been tough and water bottles left at the side of the court did not stay cool.
Thunderstorms are set to hit Paris later in the day and later this week, which would help to lower temperatures to a maximum of 33 degrees on Wednesday and 27-29 degrees for the rest of the week, according to Meteo France weather forecasts.
(Additional reporting by Geert De Clercq, Angelica Medina, Lori Ewing, Dominique Vidalon; Writing by Ingrid Melander; editing by Clare Fallon)
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