The purpose of this study was to clarify the actual situation of cooling strategies used during competition or practice under hot environments among elite Japanese athletes. Participants (102 elite athletes, 20 coaches, and 4 scientific-support staffs) completed cooling strategies questionnaire that focused on the strategies they used in competition or practice. The participants played sports that fell into one of seven event categories: triathlon, women`s field hockey, cycling, men`s beach volley ball, women`s rugby sevens, fencing, and men`s soccer. The results of this study demonstrated that most elite Japanese athletes, coaches, and scientific support staff thought their athletic performance was impaired during competition or practice under hot environments (89% and 83%, respectively). Thus, under such conditions, the athletes, coaches, and other staffs strongly recognized the importance of cooling strategies in both competition and practice (100% and 95%, respectively). However, the implementation rate of cooling strategies, such as body cooling, was lower in practice compared with in competition (64% and 86%, respectively). Additionally, we confirmed that the most popular cooling strategy in both competition and practice was using an ice pack, however, no comment was made regarding ice slurry ingestion as a cooling strategy. Our results suggest that although elite Japanese athletes, coaches, and scientific support staff recognize the importance of cooling strategy during competition and practice, strategy engagement differed between competition and practice. Moreover, because no comment was made regarding the use of novel cooling strategies, information transmission was speculated as not always being enough for Japanese athletes. Therefore, more information regarding cooling strategies should be provided to Japanese athletes and coaches to optimize performance at not only competitions but also during practice under hot environments.
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