Hi David, In response to your post, I thought I would contact you on behalf of Physiology at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS, http://www.ausport.gov.au/ais/sssm/physiology ). Our team have been preparing elite Australian athletes for major competition (Olympic Games, World Championships, Commonwealth Games, etc) with a focus on performance in hot and humid conditions, from many years. The strategies that we have implemented to attenuate the acute effects of heat stress have involved heat acclimation and precooling, to optimise spots performance - predominantly on endurance performance (Rowing, Cycling, Race walking etc.). While preparing athletes and their performance at competition has been our major outcome, we have also been able to fine tune our acclimation and precooling protocols, facilities and generate research publications. Our work has lead to the development of the Neptune Ice vest (Neptune wetsuits, Australia - no longer commercially available), the RMIT/AIS phase-change cooling jacket (not commercially available) and the more recent strategy of combining ice-slurry ingestion while iced towels are applied to the skin for 30 min. Our team and hence our research themes have evolved over many years, and we are lucky in that our major contributors are all still involved in some capacity. From a Sports Nutrition perspective (see http://www.ausport.gov.au/ais/nutrition ), our colleagues are also highly active in research and producing consensus guidelines specific to sports Nutrition in this area. We also have a few publications to look out for in the near future including an updated version of the test methods manual (http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2264689 ), which will include a specific chapter on preparing athletes for competition in thermally stressful environments.
I am happy to point you in the right direction for any reading in the area or to answer any specific question you may have. Thank you Gary Little for acknowledging our contribution. Kind regards, Megan Ross PhD Candidate - Edith Cowan University Physiology Australian Institute of Sport Australian Sports Commission [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> www.ausport.gov.au<http://www.ausport.gov.au/> Our mission - To enrich the lives of all Australians through sport ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Keep up to date with what's happening in Australian sport visit http://www.ausport.gov.au This message is intended for the addressee named and may contain confidential and privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient please note that any form of distribution, copying or use of this communication or the information in it is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. If you receive this message in error, please delete it and notify the sender. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
