Competition issues - the specific case of open water swimming. Preparation for the Tokyo Olympic Games.

Educated at the Universities of Keele and London, Professor Tipton joined the University of Surrey in 1986. After 12 years at the Robens Institute and European Institute of Health and Medical Science he moved to the University of Portsmouth in 1998. In addition to his University positions, Professor Tipton was based at the Institute of Naval Medicine (INM) from 1983 to 2004 and was Consultant Head of the Environmental Medicine Division of the INM from 1996. He has spent over 35 years researching and advising the military, industry and elite sports people in the areas of thermoregulation, environmental and occupational physiology and survival in the sea. He has published over 550 scientific papers, reports, chapters in these areas as well as the books, “The Essentials of Sea Survival” (Golden & Tipton, 2002) and “The Science of Beach Lifeguarding” (Tipton & Wooler, 2016).

Professor Tipton has been a consultant in survival and thermal medicine to the Royal Air Force and UKSport; he recently completed 10 years on the Royal National Lifeboat Institution’s Medical & Survival Committee. Prof Tipton is a member of the Ectodermal Dysplasia Society’s medical advisory board. In 2004 Prof Tipton was made an Honorary Life Member of the International Association for Safety & Survival Training in recognition of his work in sea survival. He chaired UKSport’s Research Advisory Group and now sits on the English Institute of Sports’ Technical Advisory Group. Prof Tipton chairs the Energy Institute’s Health Technical Committee; he is a Trustee of Surf Lifesaving GB. He was Senior Editor of the journal “Extreme Physiology and Medicine” and is currently Editor-in-Chief of The Physiological Society’s journal “Experimental Physiology”. Prof Tipton is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, he provides advice to a range of universities, government departments, industries, medical, search and rescue and media organisations. In his spare time Prof Tipton tries to do triathlons; including the Nice Ironman every 5 years.

Selected Publications:

Tipton, M. J., Reilly, T. J., Rees, A., Spray, G. & Golden, F.St.C. (2008) Swimming performance in the surf: the influence of experience. International Journal of Sports Medicine 29(11): 895-8 

Shattock, M & Tipton, M. J. (2012) “Autonomic conflict”: a different way to die on immersion in cold water? Journal of Physiology 590 (Pt 14): 3219-30.  Tipton, M. J. (2013) Sudden cardiac death during open water swimming. British Journal of Sports Medicine 48(15):1134-5 

Tipton, M. J. & Bradford, C. (2014) Moving in extreme environments: open water swimming in cold and warm water. Extreme Physiology and Medicine 3:12. http://www.extremephysiolmed.com/content/3/1/12

Castellani, J. W. & Tipton, M. J. (2015) Cold stress effects on exercise tolerance and exercise performance. Comprehensive Physiology, American Physiological Society Section 14. Handbook of Physiology, Environmental Physiology

Saysell, J., Massey, H., Lomax, M. & Tipton, M. J. (2015) Investigation into lower water temperatures for open water racing. University of Portsmouth Report to FINA, IOC & ITU