Team GB Olympic chiefs order athletes to sit away from toilets on flights to Tokyo to avoid picking up bugs
BRITAIN’S Olympic athletes will be ordered to sit nowhere near plane toilets on their flights to Tokyo - to avoid picking up bugs which could wreck their medal dreams.
Team GB chiefs recognise the health of athletes can be the decisive factor to turn silver into gold or fourth place to a medal.
And that includes a crash course in airplane etiquette.
Craig Ranson, director of athlete health at English Institute of Sport, explained: “Respiratory illness is by far the biggest health issue that caused time away from preparation and performance.
“When athletes are in camps or during Games time, if one gets a cold they can all get a cold. “So it’s about teaching some really basic things to avoid that cross-infection.
“We have some great technology which teaches them about how to wash their hands effectively so you don’t get contamination of bugs that way.
“About how they can clean their seat in the plane and where to sit in the plane so the air-conditioning leaves them less exposed to bugs from other people in the plane.
“We don’t want people to bag our seats so I won’t go into specifics but not near the toilet.
“Some things you wouldn’t necessarily think about but are actually quite simple and can have a big difference in terms of arriving in good form and healthy.”
Temperatures in Tokyo could peak in the mid-40s degrees Celsius, forcing Games organisers to move the marathons and race walking events from the capital to the city of Sapporo in the north of the country.
Ranson added: “There is a specific focus this time knowing what the conditions are going to be like.
“Our sports scientists and doctors have been on top of this for a while.
“We have a whole raft of initiatives around what is the most appropriate clothing, the ways to pre-cool yourself down before competitions, to cool down fast during competition and afterwards using specific clothing, equipment and rooms that can be air-conditioned.
“The BOA is also really on top of this as well making sure all the initiatives can be supported on the ground.”
Ian Walker, a silver medallist in 1996 and now director of racing for British Sailing, who will field ten boats in Enoshima Bay, added: “In Atlanta we thought we were really cutting edge because we had a white wetsuit.
“Our strategy for dealing with the heat was to drink the free Gatorade and jump in the sea when we were hot.
“So we are light years now away from where we were then.
“Because of local laws in Japan everybody has to wear a life jacket.
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“Windsurfers who work really, really hard never wear lifejackets.
“In the test events they had to wear them. That insulated the heat and it rapidly became a health concern.
“If those rules are still in place, we need to see if we can design a lifejacket that gives us a competitive advantage.”