The Australian Olympic team brought ice baths to the sun-drenched 2004 games in Athens, so that athletes could plunge in shortly before their events.17 In 2008, they adopted a simpler and more practical approach, shipping seven slushie machines to Beijing and deploying them at the venues for track, cycling, soccer, triathlon, and several other sports. Just as the transformation of liquid water to vapor cools your skin when you sweat, the “phase change energy” of ice melting to water in your stomach provides an extra cooling boost beyond what you would get from simply drinking a cold drink.
