There have been a variety of heat-related medical incidents during sports events in 2026.
Tennis players Jakub Mensik and Ekaterina Alexandrova collapsed during matches played at more than 30C, and eight runners had to be taken to hospital during a marathon in South Korea in April at which temperatures reached 29C.
Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar called this year’s heat “dangerous” during the event, while Matthew Brennan asked “what are we doing?” after the temperature topped 40C at the Vuelta a Espana, in which he won five stages.
This summer’s World Cup also featured controversial hydration breaks at every match, which Fifa insisted were introduced to aid player welfare.
Many sports – including tennis, athletics and cycling – monitor potentially dangerous levels of extreme heat using the Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT), which produces a measure for heat stress levels by assessing air temperature, humidity, wind speed, sun angle and solar radiation.
But some experts believe athletes need greater protection, or the risk of further fatalities will increase.
“We have seen an increase in the number of heat illness events in rugby and many other sports around the world in recent years,” says Dr Madeleine Orr – assistant professor of sport ecology at the University of Toronto.
“People assume we’ve seen such extreme heat before and think, ‘it was fine, we pushed through, we can do it again’.
“That’s not necessarily true – the heatwaves we’re experiencing today are hotter than the ones in your childhood, because heatwaves are relative to the local normal, and ‘normal’ levels have risen.”
