Extreme heat and health at Tokyo-2020ne: The need for scientific coalition across sectors

Author: Yuri Hosokawa, Jennifer Vanos

Year: 2020

Published in: Temperature Volume 7, 2020 - Issue 2: Special Issue 2 of 2: Anticipating the Tokyo Olympic Games

The Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games are rightfully one of the world’s largest athletic competitions to showcase and praise excellence, respect, and friendship through sport. While athletes are striving to meet the hendiatris of the Olympics, Citius (faster), Altius (higher), and Fortius (stronger), experts from varying disciplines (Figure 1) have been working to build resilience against extreme heat through integrated heat preparedness plans for identifying, tracking, mitigating, and responding to the negative health impacts of extreme heat in Tokyo. Such preparedness efforts across a coalition of individuals are groups will help to not only maximize athletic performance but also ensure that the health and safety of all stakeholders involved in the games are protected.