What to Require From Your Event Medical Provider: A Cooling Equipment Checklist for Race Organizers

Most race organizers leave the specifics of cooling equipment to their medical provider's judgment. That works until a hot race day exposes the gap, and the organizer discovers, after the fact, exactly what was and was not on site. The IOC/BJSM consensus statement on sport events in the heat gives organizers specific, citable language to put into a medical services contract instead of leaving it to assumption.

Why this belongs in your contract

A medical services bid can look complete on paper, with responder counts, ambulance coverage, and a radio plan, while saying nothing about how exertional heat stroke is actually treated on site. Providers vary in what they carry by default, and an organizer who does not specify cooling equipment in the contract has no basis to hold a provider accountable if it is missing on race day. Naming the requirement in writing also protects the organizer directly: in a dispute after an incident, a documented, specified requirement becomes part of the organizer's own defense.

The baseline: what IOC/BJSM asks of organizers

The IOC consensus statement on sport events in the heat (Racinais, Hosokawa et al., British Journal of Sports Medicine) asks organisers to ensure the availability of on-site immersion cooling equipment as part of event medical planning, not as an optional add-on. That single line is the standard to hold a bid against.

The checklist

Put these items in the medical services contract, and ask for them explicitly in any provider's bid.

Equipment, named specifically:

At least one deployable, whole-body immersion cooling tub per advanced medical post, on site and set up before the start, not held in a vehicle or a logistics reserve.
A stated water and ice replenishment plan sufficient for the full duration of the event, not just the first hour.
Rectal temperature probes at every post. Skin temperature or verbal assessment alone is not an acceptable substitute in a bid.

Protocol, in writing:

A written exertional heat stroke protocol aligned with the "Cool First, Transport Second" principle: on-site cooling before transport, not stretchering to the ambulance first.
A named numeric target: core temperature below 40°C within 30 minutes of collapse.
A defined decision authority for course or format changes tied to WBGT thresholds, agreed with the organizer before race day, not improvised on the morning.

Format-specific, for indoor or high-density events:

For Hyrox and similar indoor formats, cooling equipment staged within the venue itself, close enough to the competition floor to be reached in under a minute.
Venue temperature and humidity monitored inside the space, not assumed from outdoor conditions.

After the event:

A written incident log for every heat-related case treated, with times and temperatures, delivered to the organizer as part of the post-event report.

Red flags in a bid

A few patterns in a medical services proposal are worth pausing on before signing. Cooling described only as ice towels or misting fans, with no immersion equipment named. No numeric cooling target anywhere in the protocol. No answer, or a vague one, when asked directly how many working immersion tubs will be on site and where. A provider that cannot answer these questions specifically is telling the organizer something about how the bid was put together.

What providers use to meet this bar

The Kollder emergency cooling tub deploys in under 2 minutes by a single operator, folds into a compact 85x10x10cm bag, and gives full patient access during immersion, the setup event medical providers use to satisfy exactly this checklist. Organizers building their medical plan can share specifications with their provider at kollder.com/#contact.