Analysis of thermal comfort and sport performance in cross-country skiing athletes wearing different types of clothing

Research was done on a subject which is not well known, especially in sports applications: climatology and meteorology applied to sport with a special focus on thermal comfort. The review of the literature research indicates that most of studies on the relationship between thermal comfort and clothing mainly focus on the military field and therefore there is a lack of structured research on the relationship between clothing and sports performance. This study aims to clearly evaluate the performance of materials used in winter sports in terms of breathability and capability to control temperature and moisture with a particular focus on cross-country skiing. An innovative test protocol is presented which can match the correlation between comfort and performance by testing three different technical underwear types from middle to high-end quality. This study also combines the assessment of ergonomic comfort along with thermal comfort by testing apparel in environmental conditions and by studying how these factors can influence performance. Studies on thermal comfort have so far been carried out predominantly with test protocols in a climatic chamber. To expand the scope of research, it is necessary to conduct studies in an outdoor environment and analyse sports that cannot be easily reproduced in a climatic chamber (i.e.: cross-country skiing, alpine skiing, canoeing). Innovative on-field and outdoor testing was performed on cross-country ski athletes and instructors; the data from the wireless sensors measuring skin temperature and skin humidity were validated using a portable meteorological station. A questionnaire was given to testers who described their feelings in function of the different clothes worn. This innovative outdoor test protocol presented in this research fills a gap in the topic area related to the evaluation of the effect of the environmental conditions on thermal comfort, sport performance and development of sport clothing. As a consequence, the research presented here is strongly innovative as it analyses the topic in the external environment by proposing a new and interesting field of research. It is also clear that the development of research based on the study of the relationship between clothing and sports performance with tests carried out outdoors, can represent an area that will lead to a more complete assessment of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of each sport in the future. Keywords: thermal comfort; skin temperature; skin humidity; sport performance; cross country ski; technical underwear; sport equipment