Tokyo Olympics 2020: Athlete Faints on the Very First Day of Olympics Due to Hot Conditions

On July 23, during the Olympics qualifying round for archery, a Russian archer, Svetlana Gomboeva, fainted as the Tokyo heat was too much for her to handle. The heat pushed coaches and staff members to huddle under the trees, trying to find some shade.

The qualification rounds for both the men?s and women?s events are underway at the Tokyo Olympics 2020. The archers have to stand in the blistering Tokyo heat for around two hours.?

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Weather conditions at the Tokyo Olympics 2020

With the temperatures to peak at around 33 degrees Celsius (91 Fahrenheit) at the archery dome on the first day of competition, athletes battled the heat to stay cool and hydrated. The heat and humidity are too much for some athletes.

?We hope that she will be okay. It turns out that she couldn?t stand a whole day out in the heat,? coach Stanislav Popov told reporters.

?This is the first time I remember this happening. In Vladivostok, where we were training before this, the weather was similar. But humidity played a role here.??

Svetlana Gomboeva’s coach, Stanislav Popov, told reporters that the humidity played a bigger role in dehydration at the archery dome.?

Svetlana Gomboeva condition

The Russian archer Svetlana Gomboeva fainted when she looked up to check her final scores. Staff and teammates tried to cool her down by putting bags of ice on her head and body. Svetlana immediately regained consciousness after fainting.?

She had to be stretchered out of the arena by medical officers to check up on her and make sure she?s healthy. They questioned teammate Ksenia Perova about Svetlana?s health condition. She said Svetlana was recovering well and would resume competition.

?Everything is fine with Sveta now,? she said. Australian archer Ingley had some simple advice for her fellow competitors on how to beat the heat.

“Cooling vest, slushies, fans, umbrellas, just all that, just try to keep out of the heat as much as possible,” Ingley told Reuters after her competition. “And drink water as much as possible.”

Svetlana Gomboeva will return to compete and qualify for the archery event.