Lung damage also afflicts skiers, bicyclists, and swimmers in frightening numbers. It's hardly surprisingly, then, that the folks who oversee the Olympics are concerned. The results were similar to those from another survey after the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano, Japan. In a series of carefully controlled exercise tests, the Olympic Committee of Colorado found that more than a quarter of the athletes on the American team suffered from bronchospasms, sudden constrictions of lung passageways that limit breathing. The resulting loss of water and body heat changes the chemical balance of the fluids in the respiratory system, triggering inflammation.
Heat loss is particularly severe among cross-country skiers.
But in most sports, its what's in the air that plays an equally important role. Competitive swimmers inhale chlorine from the water of indoor pools, cyclists breathe exhaust fumes, and skaters glide in a haze of pollutants from ice-making systems. Meanwhile, long-distance runners often develop allergies to pollen. Of course, when most of us exercise, we don't do it the way Olympians do. There's some recent good news here as well.