Olympic Athletes and Jet Lag: Prof Says More Research Needed on How to Optimize Performance

Imagine you have just arrived in Athens, Greece after an overnight flight from Atlanta. It's 9 a.m. local time, but 2 a.m. according to your body clock. You feel fatigued and slow-witted. Your muscles hurt, and your head is pounding. In less than 48 hours you'll be vying for an Olympic gold medal. What, if anything, should you do to optimize your athletic performance?

Although practical advice abounds, the answer to this question remains largely unanswered by scientific research, according to a recent position statement co-authored by University of Georgia exercise science researcher Patrick O'Connor and published by the International Federation of Sports Medicine (FIMS).

“The effect of air travel on athletic performance remains poorly understood because professional sport teams, granting agencies and private foundations rarely have been willing to support research aimed at addressing this question,” said O'Connor, a professor in UGA's College of Education and lead author of the FIMS position statement.

Athletes who compete internationally frequently blame jet lag for performance problems. One of the most famous instances of this was when United States athlete Greg Louganis blamed jet lag after hitting his head on the diving board during the springboard preliminaries at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. And as recently as last week, U.S. sprinter Maurice Green blamed jet lag for his loss to Portugal 's Francis Obikwelu in the 100 meters at the Gaz de France track meet.

Jet lag is a condition characterized by fatigue, dizziness, sleep loss, headaches and reduction of alertness. Although it is widely believed that jet lag impairs the performance of athletes, there are no consistent or compelling studies that offer reliable results.

The FIMS position stand summarizes the scientific literature on air travel and sports performance and calls for more research to understand the link. It also provides practical advice on what athletes can do before, during and after air travel to minimize the affects of jet lag.

Some of the practical advice includes gradually shifting the sleep schedule each day toward that of the destination a few days prior to departure, stretching and performing light exercises each hour during the flight, and avoiding heavy training for the first few days after the flight.

Since most of the adverse effects of air travel are thought to be due to circadian rhythms disturbances, an interruption of the body's natural 24-hour biological cycle, the position statement includes information about three interventions for shifting circadian rhythms, bright light and darkness schedules, melatonin and exercise.

The FIMS position statement has implications for optimizing the performance of athletes who travel across several time zones. Since the more time zones crossed, the greater the need for resynchronization, athletes competing internationally stand to benefit most from this advice.

UGA Head Swim Coach Jack Bauerle, who was an assistant women's coach on the 2000 Olympic team in Sydney, Australia, has been dealing with the issue of jet lag for swimmers he has coached in international events for two decades.

“We try to make sure they're at least a day through any time zone,” says Bauerle. “If we're going out west, we go at least three days ahead for the three time zones. Other issues that are real important are the rest beforehand and hydration.

“We stay overly hydrated. We try to keep them hydrated before they leave and then double our hydration on the plane because it's such a sapping atmosphere as far as the dry air,” he says.

“I think activity, as soon as we get there, is also important. So when we arrive, we often try to get the kinks out,” he says. “When I was head coach last year for the world championship team in Barcelona, we traveled approximately 30 hours to get to our destination. When we got there, we checked them in and actually went to the pool immediately and tried to get them into the normal routine of things.”

The FIMS position statement is available at: http://www.fims.org/fims/position/position.asp.

Monday, July 26, 2004

WRITER: Kristen Heflin, 706/583-0811, heflin@uga.edu

CONTACT: Pat O'Connor; Office: 706/542-4382, poconnor@coe.uga.edu