About this Research Topic
The Games of the XXXII Olympiad (2020 Summer Olympics) will take place from 24 July to 9 August 2020 in the Japanese city of Tokyo. The Games will generate great international interest and national pride, and many see this as the pinnacle of their sporting/athletic career. The modern Olympics are a unique event. They are in fact not standalone but part of a four-yearly cycle (Olympiad), which in itself means that athletes prioritize these over (bi)annual championships at national, regional or world level. Tokyo 2020 will deliver an exciting and unique sports experience with a gender-balanced, youth and urban program (e.g. surfing, sport climbing & skateboarding).
For the research community it will provide a platform/forum through which to identify latest trends, bring concepts up-to-date, and disseminate to our end-users and the public. Whether athlete, support staff, applied practitioner or researcher, optimizing performance is a unifying aim. This diverse Research Topic seeks to enthuse and attract researchers with a common focus: the physiology of optimizing athlete performance.
Some fields may be specific to these Games. For example, the populous, sporting and research centres of Western Europe and North America are ≥8 time zones removed and ≥10 hours total travel time from Tokyo. Therefore, the science of athlete travel, sleep and recovery will be important. Similarly, these Games are scheduled for the middle of summer that is marked by high ambient heat (>30 ºC) and relative humidity (>70%), thus athlete preparation for, competition in and recovery from this thermal stress should be high on the agenda. How these, or other conditions, affect individual events (i.e. athletics, swimming, cycling or team-sports) or venues (e.g. indoors vs. outdoors, stadia vs. natural settings) are also of value. Other fields are equally important, ranging from but are not limited to: athlete monitoring and the use of wearable technology, nutrition, supplements, and ergogenic aids (pharmacological, hormonal, physiological, nutritional or physical), trends in doping, maximizing training adaptations and minimizing overtraining, illness and injury. Those researchers whose specialty concerns the multi-faceted nature of motor performance (interaction of mind and body) are equally encouraged to submit contributions, as the brain is integral to both exercise and expert performance.
All researchers in the field of exercise physiology, and whose proposal focuses on physiological and/or performance aspects, are welcome to submit a manuscript. This Research Topic encourages original research and review articles as well as methods and perspectives.
For the research community it will provide a platform/forum through which to identify latest trends, bring concepts up-to-date, and disseminate to our end-users and the public. Whether athlete, support staff, applied practitioner or researcher, optimizing performance is a unifying aim. This diverse Research Topic seeks to enthuse and attract researchers with a common focus: the physiology of optimizing athlete performance.
Some fields may be specific to these Games. For example, the populous, sporting and research centres of Western Europe and North America are ≥8 time zones removed and ≥10 hours total travel time from Tokyo. Therefore, the science of athlete travel, sleep and recovery will be important. Similarly, these Games are scheduled for the middle of summer that is marked by high ambient heat (>30 ºC) and relative humidity (>70%), thus athlete preparation for, competition in and recovery from this thermal stress should be high on the agenda. How these, or other conditions, affect individual events (i.e. athletics, swimming, cycling or team-sports) or venues (e.g. indoors vs. outdoors, stadia vs. natural settings) are also of value. Other fields are equally important, ranging from but are not limited to: athlete monitoring and the use of wearable technology, nutrition, supplements, and ergogenic aids (pharmacological, hormonal, physiological, nutritional or physical), trends in doping, maximizing training adaptations and minimizing overtraining, illness and injury. Those researchers whose specialty concerns the multi-faceted nature of motor performance (interaction of mind and body) are equally encouraged to submit contributions, as the brain is integral to both exercise and expert performance.
All researchers in the field of exercise physiology, and whose proposal focuses on physiological and/or performance aspects, are welcome to submit a manuscript. This Research Topic encourages original research and review articles as well as methods and perspectives.
Keywords: Exercise Science, Performance, Physiology, Japan, Olympics
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
