Olympic demand for ‘unproven’ ice therapy is unsustainable, scientists say

From cold-water swimming to ice baths, intentionally freezing yourself is seen as a miracle cure for everything from menopausal symptoms to arthritis, headaches and immune problems.

And for athletes, ice is widely used to aid recovery after exercise. But now researchers have said the clinical benefits of ice therapy are not evidence-based and its popularity is bad for the environment.

As the Olympic Games begin in Paris on Friday, academics from France, Qatar, India and Switzerland protested in a editorialpublished in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, that the use of ice during the Summer Olympics has reached “extraordinary levels”, despite the lack of proven effectiveness.

The amount of energy and water needed to produce, store and transport the ice is not good for the planet, not to mention the costs, they added.

While about 22 tonnes of ice were delivered to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games competition venues for medical purposes and another 42 tonnes were delivered to the Olympic Village, the need for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games far exceeds those numbers, the academics noted.

Initial estimates were for 1,624 tonnes of ice – at a cost of €2.5 million – but after no independent supplier was able to complete the public tender, the Paris Games revised their estimate to 650 tonnes (450 for the Olympics and 200 for the Paralympics), the newspaper reported.

Cold water immersion accounted for around 10% of treatments prescribed by physiotherapists at the Olympic outpatient clinics in Athens 2004 and London 2012. By Rio 2016, this had risen to 44%. Of the immersions, 98% were for recovery, with the remainder for treating injuries.

Although cold water immersion is beneficial for heat exhaustion, after exercise in high temperatures, and for muscle soreness, it should not be used for recovery between consecutive bouts of intense exercise, nor for immediate or prolonged recovery after strength training.

“Ice use during the Summer Olympics has reached extraordinary levels, potentially placing pressure on local and regional resources,” the academics concluded. “When planning ice provision, organisers should aim to minimise the use of non-evidence-based practices and promote better sustainability. Ice should remain available for certain situations, including acute pain relief, specific recovery needs and the management of exercise-related heat stroke.”

Paulina Kloskowska, a sports and musculoskeletal physiotherapy physician at King’s College London who often works with elite athletes, responded to the findings by saying that elite sport has always operated on the “edge of the evidence” to achieve “marginal gains” in performance, injury prevention or recovery, and that concerns about the overuse of ice were justified.

She said: “There is increasing evidence that heat therapy is actually better for long-term muscle recovery in such conditions, and that early and frequent ice and cold therapy may reduce tissue resilience, its ability to bear loads or adapt in a healthy way.”

Dr Richard Budgett, the International Olympic Committee’s medical and scientific director, said the study should help ensure the Games use ice as effectively and rationally as possible. “In addition, there are alternatives to ice available, including a cooling system using filtered water cooled to 10C, which would allow us to significantly reduce energy consumption. We will continue to monitor this aspect closely (for) useful evidence to further reduce the amount of ice used at future Games, in line with best medical practice.”