Australian community sport extreme heat policies : limitations and opportunities for improvement

The importance of sport in Australian culture is evidenced by 79% of the population aged ≥15 years participating in sport or physical activity one or more times per week. Another defining feature of Australia however is its hot climate. Notably, 2013 was the hottest year on record in Australia and the risk of experiencing extreme heatwaves in summer has increased two-fold in the past few decades. While fatal heat-related injury during sport is mercifully rare, many cases of heat-related illness during sport and physical activity have been documented. Recent examples include reports of heat exhaustion in nine children during the 2016 Triathlon Championships in Penrith (NSW). Moreover, the incidence rate of heat-related health problems at sporting events is likely underreported due to confounding coding and diagnostic issues, especially in the hospital setting. In view of these concerns, many Australian sporting organisations have developed extreme heat policies that stratify the risk of heat illness based on environmental conditions and recommend procedures for cooling participants. The aims of this editorial are to summarise the Sports Medicine Australia (SMA) heat policy and a representative sample of existing heat policies issued at the community level by the six most popular club sports in Australia (according to the 2016 AusPlay survey); and discuss the limitations of these existing policies while highlighting opportunities for improvement through future research.