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Description
Ice swimming is a very demanding sports discipline requiring extraordinary body adaptation to harsh environmental conditions. The International Ice Swimming Association (IISA) rules require water temperature to be below 5 °C during the entire swimming session. Athletes cover distances from 100 m to as much as 6 km in these conditions without wetsuits or any additional warming elements spending anywhere from one minute to several hundred minutes in the cold water. During that time, the body cools down rapidly, causing the body temperature to drop, even to mild hypothermia levels. Considering such a sudden temperature drop, the body's thermoregulatory mechanisms should cause heat exchange reduction between proximal and distal regions of the body. The temperature difference between individual, selected body parts after the session might carry broad information about the thermoregulative behaviour of the body, allowing further enhancement and understanding of the swimmers’ performance. This paper proposes a method for ice swimmers’ physical condition assessment and time-in-the-water estimation based on the analysis of the thermograms recorded just before and after the swimming session as well as supplementary biomedical data such as heart rate and skin temperature, regardless of the individual traits of swimmers. Thermography, as a non-invasive, non-contact, and rapid method, enables the recording of skin temperature distribution across large areas of the body without interfering with natural physiological processes or impacting swimmers' comfort. Compared to traditional skin temperature measurements, thermography allows for the detection of local temperature gradients, temperature asymmetries, and differences between selected skin areas. Thermal imaging also allows for the identification of areas particularly susceptible to excessive cooling, which can be crucial for swimmers' safety. The proposed study demonstrates the potential of using thermal imaging for rapid and non-invasive diagnosis of whole-body temperature distribution in swimmers. This could contribute to better understanding of ice swimmers thermal adaptation and may contribute to determining a maximum time that can be spent in the water without a risk to health of the individual.
