Performance experts pack the essentials to help Paris-bound athletes travel well

The packs are filled with items to help prevent sickness, combat the effects of long-haul travel and jet lag, and help athletes settle in the noisy and busy athlete village.

The QAS High Performance team has collaborated with world-leading high-performance recovery and sleep expert, Australian Christian University Professor Shona Halson, to create the packs to help athletes stay in peak physical condition for their competitions.

“There are a lot of challenges that athletes face when travelling internationally. The goals of these packs were around sleep and keeping them as healthy as they can be during travel.  We packed things like eye masks and ear plugs, sanitation wipes, hand sanitiser, and a face mask. And then we’ve also got some things for them to use on the plane. Like saline eyedrops and saline nose spray as well, which can help protect from illness,” advises Professor Halson.

QAS performance scientist, Myles Dennis, says the travel packs are important in helping athletes stay organised for when they have to travel.

“Being able to streamline that process as much as possible is going to be a massive benefit to the athletes, starting from the moment that they get onto the plane,” says Dennis.

“We’ve got so many sports science staff embedded within athlete environments to really understand the key needs of the athletes to minimise the disruption on their potential performance in Paris.”

For QAS-supported athletes travelling to Paris, the packs are not only important for adapting to the athlete village, but for their competitions in the lead up to their Olympic and Paralympic events.

Olympic silver medallist, Taliqua Clancy, says the travel pack would help her settle quickly for her third Olympic Games.

“We know there’s more people than usual, so we just try to make sure we take care of sanitation, and all those types of things. Our sleep rate recovery is really, really important so we’ll definitely try to set up the environment as quick as we can,” says Clancy.

The Travel Well packs contain antibacterial wipes and liquid hand sanitiser, ear plugs, an eye mask with ear plugs, saline nasal spray, saline eye drops, electrolyte powder, plus information cards with sleep and recovery tips from Professor Shona Halson.