WASHINGTON - Eat an orange. Wear a face mask. Train elsewhere
and fly in at the last possible moment to compete.
These are some of the strategies suggested for Olympic
athletes planning to compete in Beijing, where a thick cloud of smog often
blankets one of the world's most polluted cities.
"There really isn't anything specific you can do to acclimate
to substandard air quality," said Darryl Seibel of the US Olympic Committee.
"From a training point of view, there's nothing we've found that an athlete can
do without risking their health and well-being."
The US teams expect Beijing's air to reach a "safe and
suitable standard for elite competition," Seibel said in a telephone interview
from Colorado Springs, Colorado, home of the US Olympic Training Center.
He did not think athletes would need to wear activated carbon
filtration masks, as US coaches advised in a newsletter article in 2006, and as
US triathletes did on a visit to China last year.
But he did not rule anything out.
"Until we arrive at the games in August, there's no way to
predict what the air quality will be."
It is likely to be hot and humid. The average August
temperature in Beijing is 29.5C, with relative humidity of 69 percent. This
combination puts Beijing's heat index in the "caution" range, US sports
officials have said.
But August is also likely to be rainy, and that could cut
down on sooty particles in the air.
Beijing has poured 120 billion yuan ($16.8 billion) into
clearing the smog, for a Games many of its leaders see as a coming-out party to
mark China's rise as a major world power.
"The air quality is much better now," said Gao, a 77-year-old
Beijing resident. "When I came to Beijing 50 years ago, I could not even open my
eyes when walking on those dirt roads in the coal-burning neighborhood," she
said.
Officials reportedly plan to keep half of Beijing's 3 million
cars off the roads during the Games, which begin August 8. Authorities have also
ordered Beijing and five surrounding provinces to cut industrial pollution for
two months from late July.
International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge has
warned that some endurance events - where athletes will be exposed to the air
for long periods - could be rescheduled if air pollution presents a danger.
But he has also said environmental challenges are not new to
the Games, citing the heat in Athens in 2004, and air pollution in Seoul in 1988
and Los Angeles in 1984. All three cities tackled the problems before the Games,
building trams, shutting factories or asking drivers to stay off the roads.
Nonetheless this year, at least seven countries plan to send
some of their Olympic athletes to Japan just before the Games begin, drawn by
international-standard sports facilities and accommodation and healthy food, as
well as cleaner air and a mere one-hour time difference between Japan and China.
Germany, Greece, the United States, France, Britain, Sweden
and the Netherlands are among those training in Japan.
Some 55 German athletes plan to stay in Ashibetsu on the island of Hokkaido
for pre-Olympic training, spending four or five days in Ashibetsu and leaving
for Beijing about three days before their competitive events, according to an
official at sports division of Ashibetsu city hall.
