今日美国 北京的污染是运动员的大敌

在上月的一次男子山地车奥运测试赛期间，北京的污染十分严重，美国的科贝尔斯基（Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski，2004年奥运选手）不得不中途放弃。他在中途呕吐。他表示进入比赛约半小时后，他感到呼吸困难，他到了一个点，试图放松，深呼吸，然后开始感到恶心。他表示参加比赛的50名运动员中只有8人完成比赛。

　　美国奥委会运动成绩主管罗什（Steve Roush）表示，北京声名狼藉的污染是美国奥委会进入奥运“头号无法控制的关切”。尽管中国已经采取积极措施，并计划在奥运期间改善空气质量，包括关闭邻近的燃煤电厂，限制上路的汽车数量，罗什表示，如果情况真的非常糟糕，奥委会要探求对策，减轻它对运动员的影响。

　　奥委会高级运动生理学家威尔伯（Randy Wilber）表示，奥委会会给每位美国奥运选手以及教练和支持人员提供外出时用的面具，无论他们是去观察场地、购物还是训练。训练用的面具经过特别设计，容许更高的呼吸速率。

　　奥委会不要求运动员戴上用碳滤器阻隔污染物的面具。但如果空气质量很糟糕，会强力鼓励他们戴上。在比赛期间，他们不会戴面具。罗什表示，人人都准备好在比赛时呼吸那样的空气，但训练和长期接触这样的空气会留下挥之不去的影响。

　　奥委会在测试潜在的奥运选手在面对污染的环境时的呼吸能力。这是为了查明哪些运动员会因为空气质量差而出现哮喘症状或其他呼吸问题。治疗这些症状的药物需要申请，并在奥运比赛的日子前通过反兴奋剂措施。

　　尽管奥委会有所准备，但首席执行官谢尔（Jim Scherr）表示他认为奥运期间的空气质量将有利于好表现。在8月北京奥运会倒计时一周年晚会期间，国际奥委会主席罗格表示，如果空气质量很糟糕，奥运的耐力比赛（例如马拉松）可能不得不重新安排时间。罗格的评论令奥委会的关切倍添紧迫感。

　　北京奥组委负责媒体与沟通的官员孙维德（Sun Weide）表示，由于中国政府、市政府和组委会的高度重视，并花了很多钱改善空气质量，“我们有理由相信我们将可以为运动员提供良好的空气质量”。

　　马拉松教练维格尔（Joe Vigil，他曾指导2004年雅典奥运会马拉松跑铜牌获得者卡斯托尔）计划表现自信。“你越是担心就越多禁忌。从起跑线就有了禁忌，你就干不好。因此你要做的就是做到积极。即是说‘污染没问题。通过训练，你会克服它的。’”（原标题：北京的污染是运动员最难对付的敌人；作者：Vicki Michaelis）

Beijing's pollution could be athletes' toughest foe

By Vicki Michaelis, USA TODAY

The pollution in Beijing was so thick last month during a men's mountain biking Olympic test event that the USA's Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski, a 2004 Olympian, had to drop out after throwing up midway through the race.

"About a half an hour into the race, I had a lot of trouble breathing," he says. "I got to a point where I tried to relax and take a deep breath, and then I started getting nauseous."

Only eight of the 50 athletes who began the race finished it, Horgan-Kobelski says.

Beijing's notorious pollution, sure to be in the news as the biennial World Conference on Sport and the Environment starts Thursday in Beijing, is the U.S. Olympic Committee's "No. 1 uncontrollable concern" heading into the Olympics, says USOC chief of sport performance Steve Roush.

Despite the aggressive measures the Chinese have taken and are planning to take to improve air quality during the Olympics, including shutting down nearby coal-burning plants and limiting the number of cars on city roadways, the USOC is "exploring remedies, if it is very bad, on what we can have for our athletes to lessen the impact," Roush says.

•The USOC will give every U.S. Olympian, as well as coaches and support staff, masks to wear when they are outside, whether they are exploring the sites, shopping or training. The masks for training are specially designed to allow for a higher breathing rate, USOC senior sport physiologist Randy Wilber says.

Athletes won't be required to wear the masks, which use carbon filters to block pollutants. But if air quality is bad, they will be strongly encouraged. They won't wear them during competitions.

"The concern is not necessarily during the race — everybody's going to be breathing that — but the training and the prolonged exposure to it, how it would have lingering effects," Roush says.

•The USOC is encouraging every U.S. team to consider acclimating to Beijing's time zone and August conditions (typically 86 degrees with 78% humidity, according to Wilber) at a less-polluted location in Asia, arriving in Beijing just before their competitions to limit their exposure to polluted air.

Although U.S. teams have done final preparations elsewhere in the past, primarily to keep athletes out of the spotlight, "more sports than I've ever seen" are considering it for Beijing, Wilber says.

•The USOC is testing the breathing capability of potential Olympians while they are competing in polluted environments. For instance, Wilber attended a triathlon Olympic test event in Beijing last month to measure U.S. athletes' pulmonary function immediately after the race.

The idea is to pinpoint athletes who might experience asthmatic symptoms or other breathing problems because of poor air quality. Medications to treat those symptoms need to be applied for and cleared through anti-doping measures before the day of Olympic competition.

Despite the USOC's preparations, USOC chief executive officer Jim Scherr says he believes that air quality during the Games "will be conducive to good performance."

The USOC's approach overall is to "hope for the best and prepare for the worst," Wilber says. Athletes and coaches seem to be focusing on the former, trusting that the Chinese government and organizers will have pollution under control next August.

During year-out ceremonies in Beijing in August, IOC president Jacques Rogge said that Olympic endurance events such as the marathon might have to be rescheduled if air quality is poor. Rogge's comments added urgency to a concern that already was high on Olympic organizers' to-do list.

"Because China's government, the municipal government and the organizing committee have attached great importance and have spent so much money to improve the air quality, we have reason to be confident that we will be able to provide good air quality for the athletes," says Sun Weide, deputy director of media and communications for the Beijing Organizing Committee.

Joe Vigil, who coaches U.S. marathoner Deena Kastor, winner of the 2004 bronze, plans to exude confidence as well. "The more you worry about something, the more inhibitions you'll develop," Vigil said. "And if there are inhibitions on that starting line, you're not going to do a good job. So everything you do has got to be positive. Say, 'The pollution is all right. With your training, you're going to overcome it.' "