Maria Hopman and Yannick de Korte speaking at webinar

As part of the promotion of expertise, the Society for Sports Medicine (VSG) organizes scientific meetings every year. This years topic was "Sports in heat".

The Netherlands is experiencing more and more heat waves. As a result, more and more athletes train in this heat and sporting events also take place on hot days. Sports in heat lead to physiological reactions of the body to maintain the body temperature. Also, some athletes who have had exertional heat disorders still experience persistent long-term symptoms.

The evening was in a hybrid format with the camera/sound technician, a day chairman, Maria Hopman and Yannick de Korte present in Bilthoven. The participants (mainly sports physicians and sports physicians in training) attended online. Questions were posed via the online chat and were recited by the chairperson.

Maria gave a general introduction on thermoregulation and the physiological responses to exercise in heat. Then it was Yannick who explained the project "Thermo Tokyo: Beat the Heat", where the researchers create a personal heat profile of the athlete, making it possible to apply personalized cooling strategies and heat acclimatization strategy. Maria then closed the presentation by taking participants through current scientific knowledge on persistent symptoms after heat issues.

'It was a well-organized and also well-attended evening with nice interaction with participants'' said Yannick.