Hypothermia in the Athlete

Hypothermia is a core body temperature below 35°C, graded as mild (35 to 32°C), moderate (32 to 28°C) or severe (below 28°C).

In sport it is a risk wherever athletes meet cold, wind and wet: open water swimming and triathlon, hill and mountain sports, endurance events in cold conditions, and any injured or exhausted athlete who cannot keep moving while awaiting rescue. Cold water immersion cools a person particularly quickly.

3 principles run through the topic:

• •Stop further heat loss: getting out of the wind and wet matters as much as active warming
• •Handle gently: the cold heart is irritable and rough movement can trigger a dangerous rhythm
• •Not dead until warm and dead: a severely hypothermic person can look dead yet still recover