Playing cricket in Dharamshala, sled dog races at Anchorage in Alaska, ice climbing at Kirov in Russia, volcano boarding in Nicaragua, cave diving in Mexico, bungee jumping in New Zealand, white water rafting in the Himalayas… These are some of the world’s most extreme-weather sporting destinations and activities. The weather has never held us back, even extreme weather, which is why even Antarctica has its ice marathon. The great Sahara Desert also has skiing, surfing, bodyboarding, and sledding.
Extreme sport is not just about thrill seekers doing something amazing to wow the crowd and get an adrenaline rush. Extreme sport is also about events and individual sporting feats performed in some of the places that have the world’s most extreme weather conditions… hot or cold.
Sports in the Coldest Places
It is human nature to test the limits. Many extreme sporting events are held in some of the world’s coldest places. There is snowboarding, skiing, snowshoeing, and ice skating, just to name a few. You will find plenty of options if you are interested in adrenaline action in a beautiful and frozen place. There are several sporting events and competitions too in many of these places, like –
• The Ice Climbing World Cup at Kirov in Russia
• Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race between Anchorage and Nome in Alaska
• 24 Hours of Le Mans at Le Mans in France
• Crashed Ice World Championship at Quebec City in Canada
• The Badwater Ultramarathon between Badwater Basin and Mt. Whitney in California, USA
Indoor Sports in a Cold-Weather Place
Even an indoor sporting venue can be extremely cold, like a casino, for example. Casinos are usually cold places. It is purposefully kept like that to ensure that the gamblers stay awake. Of course, you can always play online from the comfort of your home. For example, if you are a fan of card games, then you can try Teen Patti. You will get a detailed understanding of the game and teen patti master reviews here. You will learn the rules of the game, its different variations, features, rewards, and bonuses.
Of course, many of the brick-and-mortar casinos and betting places are located in cold places. Here are some of them –
• The Central Moscow Hippodrome – The temperature routinely goes back -5°C. It is famous for horse racing. There is also a renowned horse breeding research center.
• Ameristar Casino Resort Spa – It is in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, which can become freezing. A huge 130,000-square-foot facility, it has 12 bars, 7 dining areas, a luxury hotel, an indoor-outdoor pool, a luxury spa, a conference center, and many games.
• Háspenna – It is located in Reykjavik, Iceland, where it can be -10°C. It is a small casino with around a hundred machines.
• MIC Gaming Hall – Alaska’s very own gaming center can be as cold as -12.6° C. Within the casino, there are 90 machines and plenty of other games in the 6,000 square foot space.
• Feel Vegas – Club Rovaniemi – Located in Lapland, it has a nightclub, karaoke bars and, many casino games on the floor. You have to make your way through -30°C to reach this place.
Sports in the World’s Warmest Places
FIFA World Cup 2022 was played in Qatar where the temperature can reach up to 12o degrees F. But thankfully, FIFA postponed the game to November-December instead of the June-July period when the World Cup is normally held. Despite this, the temperature figures were still toasty, which affected both the players and spectators.
Baseball too must battle through the intense summer heat. It is particularly bad in Texas. For instance, The Rangers have experienced four hottest games in the history of the MLB. The record has been a couple of days in the 1980s when the heat reached up to 109 degrees.
2020 Tokyo Olympics
The 2020 Summer Olympics games in Tokyo have been described as “The Hottest Games Ever”. The temperature reached between 29 and 33 C every day. High humidity made it even worse. Even the Japanese Ministry of environment marked the weather condition as “Danger” in bright red. This was a combination of climate change and the urban heat island effect, where cities become hotter than the countryside.
Several athletes fainted during the event. The first notable casualty was the Russian archer Svetlana Gomboeva. She collapsed while checking her score even though Svetlana had earlier trained at Vladivostok in Russia, a city that is just 1000 kilometers from Japan. She had to be taken off on a stretcher eventually. The tennis player from Spain, Paula Badosa, also suffered a heatstroke and had to leave the court in a wheelchair.
The collapse of Svetlana and the fainting of other athletes have raised a serious question on organizing major sporting events in a world that is becoming overheated.
Effect of Heat and Humidity on Athletes
Heat-related illnesses like heat stroke and heat exhaustion can cause many injuries that will impact the athletes, in both the long and short term. In the short term, it can cause a drop in performance, muscle cramps, exhaustion, fainting, and loss of consciousness. In extreme cases, the condition can even become life-threatening.
However, it is the long-term effect that is more serious. Persistent high body temperature can cause organ damage, especially to the heart and kidneys. There can also be neurological damage from heat stroke, which can cause long-term cognitive impairments like problems concentrating and memory issues. Heat stroke can also cause PTSD or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, depression, and anxiety. Over the long term, these psychological effects can impact the quality of life of the athlete, personal life, and sporting career.
Extreme heat and cold are both bad for the human body. Recently, 12 patients had to be amputated because of wind chills and frigid temperatures in Kansas City where the temperature went down to the -20s in January. This has raised questions about sports in extremely cold conditions. Both NFL and NHL games had to be rescheduled because of extreme cold as there was a worry about the safety of the players and the fans.
10 of the world’s 15 hottest places are in India. So, we have to be careful about organizing sporting events in India too in extreme weather, especially the IPL games that are held in the summer.
