Road to Tokyo 2020: Weather Data Key for Best Performances in Sweltering Heat

July 14, 2019

Tokyo- A Weathernews Inc. team is boosting efforts to amass data such as air and road surface temperatures, and humidity levels at competition venues for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, which are expected to take place amid sweltering heat.

At the request of various sports associations, the team from the weather information provider is visiting many locations for weather observation to help athletes accelerate preparations for and perform at their best in the quadrennial events.

The Olympics and Paralympics in the midst of summer will be "very tough," Kazuo Asada, 43, who leads the "sports weather team," said.

"In the Tokyo Games, taking advantage of weather data will be more important than any other Olympic and Paralympic Games in the past," he said. "Our mission is to utilize weather information to help athletes win." The team was launched in 2015.

Weathernews, based in the eastern Japan city of Chiba, previously offered weather observation data for sporting and other events. The company started utilizing its know-how for competitive sports after offering cooperation to Japan's national team in the 2015 Rugby World Cup in England.

For marathon events in the 2020 Games, for example, the company will provide runners with weather data, including those collected on and around the same dates of the events in the years before 2020.

In the 2020 Olympics, women's marathon will take place on Aug. 2, and the event for men on Aug. 9, the final day of the games. The marathon events for men and women in the Paralympics will both be held on Sept. 6.

In summer last year, the team monitored in detail air temperatures, humidity and road surface temperatures, as well as wind direction and strength, every 5 kilometers of the marathon courses, taking into consideration the expected running paces of Olympic and Paralympic athletes. It also checked areas expected to be in shade during the time of day when the races will take place.

The team plans to conduct similar observations this year as well.

"We hope to help athletes make preparations even under the worst weather conditions," Asada said.

How such weather data should be used will be up to athletes themselves.

The team monitored and provided real-time weather data at venues of the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in South Korea and the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta. "Athletes who had been keen to check weather data with us won medals," Asada said, adding, "Winners are highly sensitive to information."

The team will also provide weather data to triathlon and sailing competitors in the Tokyo Games.

Thanks to cooperation with the University of Tsukuba, the team is now able to forecast weather for an extremely localized area measuring 5 meters by 5 meters.

"We're taking on a challenge all the more because weather conditions during the 2020 Games may not be good," Asada said, vowing to offer the best support possible to Olympians and Paralympians. Jiji Press