Jet Lag Sailing is a Bad Idea - Lessons from the Canadians at the 2018 Optimist Worlds
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| Performance of 3 Jet Lagged Canadian sailors at the 2018 Optimist Worlds during 3 First Days of Racing |
Why did those 3 Canadian sailors arrive so late in Cyprus? Because the Canadian Optimist Dinghy Association (CODA) had decided to run its qualifiers for the 2019 Worlds on August 19-23 in Squamish, British Columbia, just before the 2018 Worlds. In Canada, the national championship serves as qualifier for all international IODA events - including the worlds. This is something that the Canadian class has decided, and even enshrined into its bylaws. No other national Optimist class in the world seems to have adopted such a weird approach.
Presented long in advance, in November 2017, with the evidence that it was not making any sense, and that the sailors qualified for the worlds were going to be extremely tired, totally out of synch with the new time zone, and not used to the local (very warm) climate, the CODA ruled however that there was enough time for sailors to complete the regatta in British Columbia and be fully ready to participate in the worlds. They claimed that despite not only a huge 10 time zones gap between the two locations, but also despite the fact that it involves Eastwards travel, which is much hard to recover from than when travelling West.
In addition, instead of facing the facts, the association recommended the Squamish regatta as a great venue to prepare for the worlds. The CODA totally dismissed the issue of jet lag. The CODA also dismissed the fact that it is totally ill-advised to do two substantial competitions back to back. And that serious teams arrive on site way in advance for major competitions such as a world championship, especially when jet lag is involved and when none of the sailors know the local conditions.
The CODA was supported in its decision to run the 2019 qualifiers just prior to the 2018 Worlds by their official coach representative and by several parents, including 2 parents of sailors particularly eager to participate in IODA events in 2019 (one of those did 3 such IODA events in 2018!) and 1 parent who sits on the executive board of the association. A vote by the CODA executive apparently ruled that there was no jet lag issue. In Canada, the Optimist class - the CODA - is a private organization run by parents, that operates largely in secrecy and totally independently from the official organization in charge of sailing governance in the country, Sail Canada.
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| Performance of 3 Jet Lagged Canadian sailors at the 2018 Optimist Worlds during 3 First Days of Racing (2) |
What is clear is that the three sailors substantially improved their performance during these 3 days of racing. Over three days, one athlete improved its average position by 12.5 positions, another by 17.5 positions and one by 27.5 positions! The trend is extremely clear. For 10 time zones, 4 days or 5 days of recovery are clearly not enough.
Things could actually have been much worse for the jet-lagged Canadian sailors. Racing in Cyprus took place mostly in afternoons, sometimes late afternoon, because of the thermal breeze. If the racing had taken place early in the morning, the jet lag effect would have been much worse.
As there were two days of team racing after the 3 days of qualifiers, and that the three sailors were in different fleets for the final series (one in the silver fleet, one in the bronze fleet and one in the emerald fleet), it’s not really possible or relevant to broaden the analysis to the next days. But during the first three days of qualifying series, the trend was very clear. Each of the three sailors improved substantially.
What are the implications of all of this? First, those three sailors would have performed much better if they would have arrived earlier. Probably, the one sailor who did it in the emerald fleet would have done the bronze or the silver. The one who did the bronze would probably have done the silver. And the one who did the silver may even have done the gold fleet.
The improvement over the three days was indeed substantial. As indicated above, one of the sailors improved its average ranking by 27.5 positions, another by 17.5 and one by 12.5. This is huge in such competitive fleets. Those sailors will never know of course how they would have performed, would they have arrived in Cyprus in a timely manner. It’s just a wasted opportunity. Huge efforts, huge resources spent for ultimately under-performing.
Clearly, with three obvious under-performances, and with the likely exclusion of one Canada’s best Optimist sailors from all IODA events in 2019 (the punition for refusing to do jetlag sailing at the Worlds), one cannot talk about a great outcome of these 2018 Optimist Worlds for Canada, despite the fact that it’s one of the best performances ever for Canadians at the Optimist Worlds!
Last year, best Canadian placed 200 - while this year, three placed in the Silver fleet. See results of this year here - and how Canadians performed (or failed to perform) in previous years here.
This episode is a sad one for Canadian sailing, which nearly exclusively relies on the Optimist for the development of competitive sailors aged 10 to 15 across the country. It’s particularly sad because it was totally preventable.
How to improve things in the future? Maybe radical, but probably the most practical solution is for the official body in charge of sailing in Canada - Sail Canada - to be mandated to take over the governance of the Optimist class. Sail Canada could easily be manded to integrate the Optimist in its yearly national youth sailing championships, and to professionally organize qualifiers for the top sailors.
Sailing is an amazing sport. It’s an Olympic sport, with quite a number of medals at stake, and Canada must get its house in order to properly promote and govern youth sailing for athletes aged 10 to 15 across the country.
And if you are reading this, and have little interest in Optimist sailing and/or the governance of competitive youth sailing in Canada, you may still have a look at the notes below about jetlag and athletic performance.
All experts tend to agree. There is no way to substantially attenuate jet lag, including via medication such as melatonin or by attempting to hack circadian rhythms. See expert notes below.
The most relevant and practical quote from these experts, is from Ola Ronsen MD, PhD, from the Norwegian Olympic Sports Center
« Guidelines for long distance air travels — Before the flight: Schedule the arrival date at new location several days prior to first day of competition (Eastward: 1 day for each hour change. Westward: 0.5-1 days for each hour change) »
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NOTES ABOUT JET LAG AND ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE
11 ways athletes can prevent jet lag - by Dr David Geier, orthopaedic surgeon and board member of the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine
https://www.drdavidgeier.com/ways-athletes-avoid-jet-lag/
« Although everyone responds differently, there is a general rule of thumb about the time needed to adjust. One day is usually required to adjust for each time zone crossed. If you travel across four time zones, you would ideally arrive at least four days before the competition. »
« If your team must travel from the west coast to the east (or overseas), you might think about traveling a few days earlier than normal to adjust. »
« It is hard to establish a link between injuries during intense practices shortly after travel. Theoretically though, fatigue and decreased concentration could lead to injuries. Regardless, moderate exercise and training might be better in the first few days after arrival. »
Jet Lag and Running Performance: How to Minimize the Effects
https://runnersconnect.net/the-impact-of-jet-lag-on-running-performance-and-how-to-minimize-its-effects/
« When traveling westward, your body seems to be able to adjust its internal clock by about 90 minutes per day, but when you travel eastward, your internal clock is only able to adjust by about 60 minutes per day. »
IOC Handbook of Sports Medicine and Science: Cross Country Skiing — Adjustments to travels across time zones, by Ola Ronsen MD, PhD Norwegian Olympic Sports Center
https://www.olympiatoppen.no/fagomraader/helse/fagstoff/reisemedisin/media3026.media
« A rule of thumb is that the problems should not last for a greater number of days than the number of time zones crossed; i.e. complete acclimatization to 8 h difference in local time should not take longer than 8 days. »
« Guidelines for long distance air travels — Before the flight: Schedule the arrival date at new location several days prior to first day of competition (Eastward: 1 day for each hour change. Westward: 0.5-1 days for each hour change) »
Why Jet Lag Is Worse than You Think
http://time.com/4648899/jet-lag-fitness-performance/
« The effects of west-to-east travel were stronger than those of east-to-west travel, supporting the argument that they are due to the body’s circadian clock—not just time on an airplane or scheduling issues in general, » says Dr. Ravi Allada, associate director of Northwestern’s Center for Sleep and Circadian Biology.
“The rule of thumb is that the body clock can shift about one hour a day, so if you’re traveling across three time zones, you’d want to ideally give yourself three days to adjust,” he says.
TIMELINE
Timeline of the Canadian sailors who attended both the Canadian championship and the Worlds
August 19-22 - Fleet racing at the Canadian championships in Squamish, British Columbia
August 23 - 25 - Travel from Sqamish, BC to Limassol Cyprus - 10 TIME ZONES - Eastwards travel.
August 25 - the 3 sailors from Squamish arrive in Limassol, Cyprus
August 26 - 28 — measurement, training, etc.
August 29 - 1st day of racing (qualifiers) (4th day of jet lag recovery)
August 30 2nd day of racing (qualifiers) (5th day of jet lag recovery)
August 31 - 3rd day of racing (qualifiers) (6th day of jet lag recovery)
Sept 1 & 2 : Team Racing
Sept 3 to 5 : Fleet racing (gold, silver, bronze, emerald)
