Lightning Safety for Sports
Lightning is a tricky thing to navigate in the world of sports. The weather forecasts can say clear skies one minute, and the next thing you know, you have to clear the fields to go inside for safety. Additionally, lightning strikes are a bit unpredictable, so teams often wait for the lightning to stop, return to play for a couple of minutes, just to see another flash across the sky and have to go back inside. One famous example of this is the University of Iowa vs Nevada football game, which took 7 hours to finish because of repeat strikes that were terribly timed.
While working with a soccer team recently, we had several lightning delays due to a long-lasting thunderstorm. As I was sitting around waiting for the storm to clear, I remembered a time when a cross country coach directly disobeyed the medical staff's lightning policy. After being told that there was lightning in the area and that they would have to train indoors, the coach sent the team out for a run around campus. The coach seemed shocked when I explained to him the risks of being outside during a lightning storm. Yes, the odds of being struck by lightning are incredibly low. But the consequences of the unlikely event far outweigh the benefits of having the team run outside for one session. A 5-mile run that can be done literally any other time is not worth the risk of death.
Here are some fun facts about lightning:
Lightning's electricity can heat the air up to 50,000°F (hotter than the surface of the sun).
~24,000 people (globally) die from lightning strikes every year.
~30 people (in the United States) die from lightning strikes annually.
Participating in outdoor recreational activities or working outside puts you at greater risk of being struck by lightning.
In 2019, 15% of people who died to lightning strikes were running.
So, if you think lightning won't strike the athletes you work with, you're probably right. But is it worth the risk? Are you going to explain to the family and friends of the dead athlete how important that one training session was and why it had to happen during a lightning storm? Play it safe – play indoors.
