How to get started and best practices

Avantopool delivers a cold pool for the Olympic Team Finland

Cold exposure is a common way to recover the body after a top level sports performance.

In the Olympic village in Paris the Finnish Olympic athletes will get to plunge into Avantopool’s Kinos cold pool.

The pool will be placed in the Finnish team’s healthcare facilities in the Paris Olympic village.

Chef de Mission of the Paris Olympic team Finland Leena Paavolainen believes that there is a need for the pool in the competition conditions in Paris.

– We are prepared for it to be very hot and similar conditions as it was in Tokyo 2021. We had an Avantopool cold pool already there and the feedback was good. It´s great that the collaboration continues, and we get a pool to Paris too.

The High-Performance Manager of the Finnish Olympic Committee Liisa Ahlqvist-Lehkosuo has received clear instructions for how to install and maintain the Kinos pool from the Avantopool team.

– After the cargo transportation we take the pool into use from the package. The pool is almost immediately ready for use as it is. You just need to install the stairs, fill the pool, and switch it on. The maintenance mainly means cleaning the filter on a daily basis. The pool is easy to use and is handy. The collaboration with Avantopool has worked very well, thanks Ahlqvist-Lehkosuo.

Rule of thumb is 10 minutes in 10 degrees

Sports Physiology Expert Esa Hynynen, from KIHU the Finnish Institute of High-Performance Sport has investigated the impact of competition conditions on sports and was involved in the preparation camp for Tokyo Olympics in Saga 2021.

– Before the Tokyo competition we started to wonder about how the hot and humid climate effects sports performances. The conditions are different for each sport. Some sports are in air-conditioned halls but especially field sports one must consider that the foundations of the tracks absorb lots of heat throughout the day and remain hot all the way to the evening.

– When the athlete is prepared for the hot conditions, it is not a problem even if it gets a little cooler. But if the athlete is not prepared for it and a heatwave hit then it can be very uncomfortable. Even in track and field sports, where the performance itself lasts a few seconds, one must wait for their turn in between the performances and spend even hours in hot conditions.

– In a competition situation the schedule is often tight and there is little time for recovery. Cold therapy speeds up the recovery. In it, the body temperature is restored back down to its normal homeostatic state where the autonomic nervous system takes care of the balance. After the performance is done, there is no use for the extra heat in the body. That is why you should cool the body down. In a cold pool the best stimulus is created in water that is 10 degrees Celsius and for a duration for approximately 10 minutes. This is a rough rule of thumb, but everyone should find the best results for themselves.

– For many athletes, cold therapy is a routine way to ensure proper recovery, if one is used to it. It’s very good that there is a possibility to do it at the Paris competition too. A cold plunge cools down the body, but it also can calm the mind in between exciting competition experiences, Hynynen adds.