Cooling vests, slush puppies, and cryotherapy: How England are battling the heat at Euro 2025
The Lionesses kick off their title defence against France in Zurich, when temperatures across the country are likely to have cooled slightly, but their preparations for their opening game have come amid extreme heat warnings as the tournament begins.
England did not alter the time of their training on Tuesday, which took place at midday and in around 34C conditions in Zurich, but followed special procedures in an attempt to keep players' body temperatures down during their session and afterwards to aid their recovery.
Head coach Sarina Wiegman said she was not concerned by the heatwave ahead of England's first game against France, which kicks off at 9pm local time, but revealed how her players are managing with the heat during the build-up to Saturday's game.
'We could already practise it in the first week of our training camp because in England it was really hot too, so we have these cold vests, we have [an] ice box, ice drinks they can drink before training session they could also cool down a bit, get your temperature a little bit lower with slush puppies [iced drinks].
'We have ice cold towels at the rest moments in the training sessions ,they get the towels if they want to. So we make sure we are hydrated. Take another rest, don't go in and out all the time, for recovery, and do those things to keep your body temperature low.'
Wiegman praised the strategy and preparation that has gone into England's Euros campaign, as the Lionesses look to defend the title they won on home soil three years ago.
'If you see now the training pitch, all the things we need to do, the gym, the strategies we have to cool down, we have ice, we have cryo, all the things that help getting prepared for the tournament so it's not just one thing,' Wiegman said.
Extreme heat warnings in Switzerland were extended to cover the first three days of Euro 2025 as the tournament kicked off amid scorching temperatures.
Uefa relaxed security rules around supporters bringing water bottles into stadiums while fan parks had free sunscreen available at Switzerland's opening game against Norway in Basel on Wednesday night.
The temperature in Basel reached around 35C on Wednesday, dropping to around the high-20s by the 9pm local kick-off at St Jakob-Park. The temperature was also 30C when Finland and Iceland played in the opening game of the tournament in Thun.
Uefa allow cooling breaks to allow players to rehydrate when temperatures are above 35C, but referees may also take the decision to allow stoppages in extremely hot conditions.
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The Independent
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Mourners to gather in Portugal for wake of Liverpool footballer Diogo Jota
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Beth Mead interview: We're now judged like England men's team – that is a good thing
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She's a little cocker spaniel, brown with a white chest and ginger paws. I'm biased but she's gorgeous and I love her to bits. She's like me – full of energy, and a big personality, a big alpha woman 9am I've been away from my partner Vivianne [Miedema, who plays for Manchester City] since she left Arsenal, so it's nice to have quality time whenever we can. When it's not a match day, we'll go for a walk and have brunch and a coffee. I live by the countryside near St Albans so Myle is free to roam wherever she likes, as long as she behaves. 10am I live very close to the Arsenal training ground, so I drive over and get my breakfast at the club. I'm a creature of habit and eat what I eat to be able to feel good on the pitch, so it'll be avocado on toast with scrambled eggs or anything else to do with eggs, I'm a big egg fan. 11am We get on the bus to travel to the club. I play Monopoly Deal with Caitlin Foord, Katie McCabe and Alessia Russo. Katie has got 10 wins more than most of us, so we're not happy about that. We use a few rude words sometimes. 12pm Head into the stadium where I'll always go straight to see the physio. I'm actually very chilled before a match – when I'm on the physio bench, I play Candy Crush on my phone so that I don't think about the game too much, I just switch my brain off. 2pm When I go out for the warm-up, I'm in full focus mode. I'm getting old now so I've got to do that little bit of extra work, prepare correctly, and then get out there and play a good game of football. 5pm A lot of the girls find it really hard to switch off after a match, but it's one of my superpowers – I think some of them are very envious. But, win or lose, I'll always look at myself in the mirror, check my own performance, and look at what went right and what went wrong, and what could be done better. I'll then go over it the next day with coaches, looking at clips of the match. I'm my own worst enemy, definitely my harshest critic. 7pm It's nice to switch off and cook for myself. I'm very good at risotto and can make a nice lasagne or fajitas. I don't go out often but, if I do, it's for good food, good people and good chat. It depends where I am as to how much I get recognised. If one person talks to you, you're in trouble, other times, I pass by unnoticed. I meet a lot of young fans at McDonald's Fun Football sessions, where boys and girls have a safe environment to play for free. I never got the chance to do something like this as a kid and it would have made my footballing journey a lot easier. It's nice to meet them and give them a core memory – it depends who they support though, maybe not if they're the Chelsea fans! But I hope we can inspire every single one of them while we're out in Switzerland representing the nation. 9pm I've seen Game of Thrones right the way through before and gone back to the beginning. I'm watching it with Steph Catley, my close friend [and Arsenal team-mate], so it's fantastic seeing her reaction when a character dies. We've also been watching Married At First Sight: Australia – that is a very entertaining show. 10.30pm Chill in the bath. Then it's the same bedtime every night, I'm serious about my routine. My head hits the pillow and I'm out. My dad is like that so it's something he passed on to me, which I very much don't take for granted. Beth Mead kicked off the first McDonald's all-girls Fun Football day, with up to 300,000 hours of free coaching sessions across the UK this summer.
Telegraph
18 minutes ago
- Telegraph
James Vowles interview: I have no idea why Christian Horner calls me ‘The Reverend'
James Vowles can still remember the first time he went to Silverstone as if it was yesterday. He and his friend Luciano, with whom he grew up in Geneva, went on what he calls 'something of a pilgrimage' to the Northamptonshire circuit. By chance Williams were testing that day. 'I remember it perfectly,' Vowles says. 'I remember the sound, I remember the feeling, I remember the vibrations in my chest. We stood there for half an hour, on the fence, just in awe. This would have been 1996 or 1997, when I was 17 or 18. It was basically that famous Rothmans Williams car. That's what we were looking at and it was fantastic. I've still got the photos somewhere.' It is funny how life turns out. What would Vowles have said if someone had come up to him that day and told him that nearly 30 years later he would return to Silverstone for the British Grand Prix as team principal of Williams, charged with returning the once-great team to former glories? Vowles practically spits out the Wiener schnitzel he is eating. 'I simply wouldn't have believed you,' he says. 'I couldn't even come to terms with the fact that I was seeing a Formula One car, let alone come to terms with the fact that I might one day work in the sport. As for running Williams…' Vowles laughs at the absurdity of it. We are talking in a restaurant not far from the Red Bull Ring in Austria – a popular hangout for Formula One teams and drivers, to judge from the identity of our neighbouring diners, plus the mass of fans camped outside. This is Vowles' world now, although he admits he 'still pinches himself daily' at the way his life has panned out. The 46-year-old had a rather unusual entry to the sport. Growing up in Switzerland, he attended the International School of Geneva, and speaks fluent French, as he demonstrates when first Laurent Mekies, the Racing Bulls team principal, and then Jerome d'Ambrosio, the Ferrari deputy team principal, come up to say hello during dinner. 'Every team sent me a rejection letter' The sliding doors moment came when Vowles returned to Britain to read maths and computer science at the University of East Anglia. 'I woke up one day and realised I was not happy – I wanted to change my direction of travel,' he recalls. He applied to all 11 Formula One teams at the time, and got 11 rejection letters, all of which he pinned up on his wall. 'Crucially, two of those rejection letters – from BAR and Williams – came with explanations. 'They basically said that I had an interesting background but I needed engineering as well to be employable,' he recalls. He promptly applied to Cranfield, did a master's degree in motorsport engineering and management, and contributed to a project that won the Prodrive Award of Excellence, for designing a racing car for the Jim Russell Racing School. The rest is history. From BAR, to Brawn GP, to Mercedes, where Vowles was a key figure in a team that won eight consecutive constructors' titles and seven drivers' titles, and now finally Williams. 'It's been an incredible ride and I consider myself so fortunate,' he says. 'Even five years ago, I don't think I believed I would be a team principal. At Mercedes, you aspire. But you don't want to go beyond aspiring because there are so many other people more worthy than you to run an organisation. So, no, I never did. I trusted Toto [Wolff]. Toto was the one who really directed me and said 'you will be a team principal'. Listening to Vowles, you cannot help but be struck by his intense earnestness. He can actually be very funny. But you suspect that it is this earnestness, this reputation for being a bit strait-laced and boffiny, that has turned him into an unlikely fans' favourite. He is very memeable. His famous radio message when he was at Mercedes: 'Valtteri, it's James', which always spelt doom for the Finnish driver Valtteri Bottas, who knew he was about to be used as a sacrificial lamb for Lewis Hamilton, has literally become an internet meme. Comedian Jack Whitehall, meanwhile, had great fun at this year's F175 season launch at the O2, describing Vowles as 'Jimmy V' and 'the rizzmaster', and saying he couldn't wait to do espresso martinis with him at the after-party. Vowles takes it all in good humour. 'Jack is hilarious… he warned me beforehand and I found it very funny.' When Whitehall visited the Miami Grand Prix in May they ended up having espresso martinis together in the Williams motorhome. 'His was laced with alcohol, mine was not.' Vowles does not even object to Christian Horner describing him as 'The Reverend Vowles' on the last season of Drive to Survive. 'You can just imagine him saying: 'Dearly beloved…'' the Red Bull team principal told the documentary makers, laughing. What was that about? 'I have no idea,' Vowles smiles, before going on to admit he suspects it might have to do with his verbosity and mannerisms. 'I think there's two things,' he says. 'Do I think, at times, I over-explain answers? Yes. I think it might fall into that category. That's a negative trait and something I probably need to work on. And the second part of it is, yeah, I do try to act with virtue. I will do things with honesty and transparency. But I didn't take it as an insult.' It is an endearingly earnest response, which both makes Horner's point and shows Vowles in a positive light. Whatever the reason, as we head to Silverstone this weekend for the British Grand Prix, where McLaren will do battle with Red Bull and Mercedes and Ferrari, you can feel goodwill of the fans towards both Vowles and Williams. They want this to work. They want the return of a British icon to the top. What a story it would be. Vowles's conviction that it will happen is unshakeable. He may not consider himself a celebrity. He laughs about his appearance on the red carpet in New York for the movie F1. 'It wasn't for me,' he says. 'All these stars were about and I was literally standing in the middle saying: 'Anyone that needs anything signed, I'll come to you!'' But he is a workaholic. Vowles describes himself as a 'competitive psychopath' and you can feel that when he talks about his plans for taking Williams to the front of the grid, the hours he is prepared to put in, even his relationship with his wife Rachel, a surgeon. He recalls their first date together in 2019. 'I was like, 'I've got to warn you, my work is my life, and I work really long hours.' And she was like, 'No, I work really long hours.' And I was like 'No, no, no. I work really long hours.' We actually went through it. And to be fair, Formula One still trumps it, but only just. 'My wife is unbelievable. She's one of the best surgeons in the UK. A double-first from Oxford who then worked in A&E in Whitechapel, then trained in plastics and breast cancer. So quite a unique individual in that she can diagnose breast cancer and then do the mastectomy and a rebuild afterwards. 'She's now doing a PhD on the use of mesh in the rebuild process post-mastectomy. Honestly, it's life-changing stuff. I just work in F1. She's the clever one.' The couple, who live in Oxford, have a daughter Elodie, who arrived 19 months ago. They are expecting their second child literally this week, which could mean an emergency dash from Silverstone. 'As you can imagine with me, I have contingencies,' he says. 'I've got plans upon plans upon plans… so we are sorted, including helicopters on standby and all sorts!' Nothing, though, will stop him returning Williams to the top. Although the Grove team are still behind F1's biggest beasts in terms of infrastructure, change is coming. Williams have the backing of American private investment firm Dorilton Capital, and Vowles sees no reason why they cannot be winning races by 2028. Already the changes he has implemented have seen Williams make a leap in competitiveness that means they are now fifth in the championship, 'best of the rest' after the big four. But that is not enough. 'Fighting for points near enough every race is great,' Vowles says. 'But I call that low-hanging fruit. The really lovely stuff is the stuff coming online in 2026, 2027, 2028… infrastructure and facilities.' Vowles smiles. He rejects suggestions he might be 'too nice' to thrive in the Piranha Club. 'F1 has changed. It's not the same as it was even 12 years ago. I don't feel I have to go behind people's backs, to the FIA or to FOM [Formula One Management], to derail their operation. I should be beating them because I am doing a better job than them.' He similarly rejects talk that Williams are no longer 'Williams' with Sir Frank now gone and no one from his family involved. 'The DNA is absolutely still Williams. And while I'm here, we will not lose the family feel. That is really important to me. I don't want bureaucracy, I don't want corporate to go and kill what we have for money.' And how long will he be here? What if his mentor Wolff wants him back at Mercedes? Or Ferrari or McLaren come calling? He considers the question. 'I really feel this is where I'll end my career,' he replies. 'It was the proudest moment of my life walking through the door at Williams. I have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in a team with legacy beyond pretty much every team, to bring it back to the front. I'm happy looking everyone in the eyes and saying: 'This is where I want to be. This team can be world champions.' And I'll be here when we do that.'
