British track cyclists keep warm with Adidas ‘hot pants’
Adidas Adipower warming pants for the Great Britain Olympic cycling team. — Reuters picLONDON, Aug 10 — British track cyclist Sir Chris Hoy took his Olympic gold medal tally to six in London as Great Britain dominated the Velodrome in Olympic events this week. One trick they had up their sleeve: a pair of battery-operated “hot pants” designed by Adidas to keep their legs warm and to prevent injury.
While it's easy to see the track athletes could use a bit of warming up on chilly London evenings at the Olympic Stadium, with athletes huddled under blankets and slapping their legs between and before events, British track cyclists stayed warm and toasty in the Adipower hot pants.
Adidas collaborated with the British cycling team, Loughborough University, and Fibretronic to create the wearable technology, which has been a hot topic in the British media this week. Designed to resemble track pants, the Adipower uses battery-powered heat filaments to keep the muscles at optimal temperature after warmup training until the moment the cyclist hits the race track.
“I have definitely been feeling the benefits,” Hoy told The Daily Mail in the UK. “As soon as you take them off immediately before you do your standing start or flying effort, your legs feel like they are ready to go. You feel like you did at the end of a warm up but not out of breath or fatigued from it. It gets you in the optimum state for training and competition.”
British Olympic cyclists Hoy, Victoria Pendleton, and Laura Trott talk about the “hot pants” in the following video from Adidas. — AFP-Relaxnews
