Smog has Olympians holding their breath
Canadian team prepares to deal with less than perfect conditions at Beijing Games
Olympic athletes are trained to think positive.
So even as the world collectively and skeptically holds its breath to see if the Chinese government can get Beijing's air clean for the Summer Games, Canada's Olympians aren't letting a smoggy cloud descend over their medal hopes.
"The biggest thing for us would be to go into it thinking there is a problem," said triathlete Carolyn Murray.
"It's like anything. If you make it a problem it could be. We've done what's necessary and I think all of us are confident that it's not going to be an issue."
From air quality so poor that Canadian women's soccer team captain Christine Sinclair had "little chunkies" in her throat, to the sudden manifestation of algae in the sailing venue city of Qingado, the Beijing Games have thrown up all manner of climate challenges for athletes.
They've been working towards rising to that challenge for over a year.
"We started to prepare last year for it, we took physiologists with us to Beijing, and we started to test the players in the pollution a year in advance," said Les Meszaros, the manager of the women's soccer team.
"We found that on this team, we have three players that normally use inhalers for asthma, and it went up to 16. So 16 of the 24 players that we tested last year needed to deal with the pollution in a therapeutic manner."
Physiologists will be travelling to Beijing with the Canadian Olympic team and with individual teams as well to keep monitoring physical responses to the pollution.
The Canadian Olympic Committee tried its best to make sure most of Canada's summer Olympians went to Beijing at least once before the Games.
That way, they have some idea of what to expect come this August.
Weather models from last summer prepared by the team's meteorologist Doug Charko showed Beijing's heat, humidity and solar radiation levels were higher than the international guidelines for safe participation in sport.
Poor air quality can impact how much oxygen the athletes get while they compete, hampering their ability to excel.
Heat and humidity, on the other hand, dehydrate them and wear them down.
Though long jumper Ruky Abdulai says she didn't mind the warmth.
"I jump better when it's hot," she said. "Maybe it will help me."
Charko has been among the skeptics who've wondered whether large-scale efforts by the Chinese to cut back on pollutants will have an impact on air quality levels.
"We're talking about a city of 18 million people and I don't care what you do, there's just so many sources of pollution, it's impossible to stop it all," he has said.
That isn't stopping the Chinese from trying.
On July 20, they began a driving ban.
Cars with odd-numbered licence plates are allowed on the roads one day, even-numbered plates the next.
A spokesman for Beijing's Olympic organizing committee said that the plan should reduce vehicle emissions, the cause of the haze which hangs over the city, by 63 per cent.
Chemical plants, power stations and foundries also had to cut emissions by 30 per cent beginning July 20.
Some 300,000 heavily polluting vehicles -- aging industrial trucks, many of which run only at night -- were banned as of July 1.
When Canada's diving team was in Beijing for a test event in February, Dive Canada's chief technical officer Mitch Geller said they had a chance to see what the air was like without all the pollution.
"We came at the tail end of the New Year and industry was shut down pretty much and things were very clear," he said. "As soon as the factories started and the economy picked up after the holidays, the smog was incredible."
Geller is optimistic blue skies can be recreated.
"They're going to shut it down for the Olympics. To see what does happen when they shut down industry, I don't think there's going to be any problem. I really don't."
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