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Heat, altitude, travel: Why 2026 World Cup could be the toughest tournament in history
Alongside these environmental demands, teams may also face flights of four to six hours and time zone shifts of up to three hours between matches
- PUBLISHED: Sun 7 Jun 2026, 10:56 AM
The 2026 World Cup will expose teams to an unusually complex mix of challenges across three countries, multiple climates, vast travel distances and potentially differing altitudes and time zones. It is unusual not because these challenges are new to World Cups, but because they may be more pronounced and variable then ever across a single tournament.
Environmental and logistical challenges are part of international tournament soccer. Teams have long been required to adapt to demanding and often unpredictable conditions, from altitude in Mexico in 1986 to the heat of the United States in 1994 to travel across countries in South Korea and Japan in 2002.
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Russia in 2018 brought extensive travel distances but generally moderate and relatively consistent environmental conditions, while Qatar in 2022 was a World Cup played during the middle of the club season for many of the world’s elite players but with minimal travel.
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These were significant demands, but they were often more centered on one primary factor, allowing teams to prepare more specifically.
The demands of 2026, however, cannot be so easily separated. The challenge at this year’s World Cup, which starts Thursday, lies in the cumulative effect of transitioning among environments across matches, and the variability this creates for preparation, recovery and performance.
Across a World Cup, these pressures accumulate. Match play naturally induces fatigue and can disrupt sleep. Travel compounds this, particularly when combined with changes in climate, altitude and routine. These factors do not act alone; they interact and influence physical recovery, mental freshness and decision-making across the tournament.
While the 2026 World Cup may present a uniquely complex combination of challenges, the effects of these demands are now better understood. The science is stronger, the monitoring technologies are more advanced, and many medical and performance staffs possess greater exposure to elite competitions and major tournaments than at any previous World Cup. This gives teams a better opportunity to prepare with greater precision for the combined physiological, mental and logistical demands of heat, travel and altitude.
The most effective application of these approaches tends to come from experienced and integrated medical and performance teams — including doctors, physiotherapists, physical performance coaches, sport scientists and nutritionists — who understand not only what to implement but also when and how to apply it within the realities of tournament soccer.
Over time, these staff groups develop an ability to recognize patterns, anticipate challenges and distinguish what matters from what does not. When that learning compounds across multiple tournaments, it can become a significant competitive advantage.
Les Gelis, who worked across multiple World Cups with the Australia men’s team as a physiotherapist, captures this well: “Having core staff across two, three or four tournaments creates a form of organizational maturity. The key is being able to cut through the noise and become more efficient.”
Countries such as Germany, Argentina and Croatia may not approach preparation in exactly the same way, but there is often an underlying organisational DNA shaped through repeated exposure to major tournaments and challenging environments. Croatia, a finalist in 2018 and the third-place finisher in 2022, has become one of international soccer’s most consistently competitive tournament teams.
Former Croatia national team doctor Zoran Bahtijarevic, who worked across four World Cups, described how that tournament experience can shape future preparation. “You use your own learning over time and tournaments, as well as your own research, and you improve each time,” he said.
There is no perfect plan for preparing. For many teams, preparation begins years in advance — often before qualification has even been secured — before becoming progressively more specific once opponents, host cities and potential routes through the tournament are known.
Qualification and then the draw allow teams to move from broad planning to more targeted decisions around base camps — where teams will essentially make their home during the tournament — alongside travel, recovery and preparation for the specific environments they are likely to face.
Germany’s former head of performance, Shad Forsythe, who was at the team’s 2014 World Cup-winning tournament, described how, once the draw is known, key federation staff members — including Forsythe, the head coach, the technical director and medical and performance teams — begin narrowing down options, scouting venues and mapping possible trade-offs.
“You have an idea from the draw where you might be and when, so you can really start planning where you want to be, when you want to arrive, and what you want in place,” Forsythe explained. “You talk about all the possibilities and offer up potential solutions, but you know you need to keep your options open.”
The variety of pathways in 2026 means that mapping multiple scenarios once again becomes essential. Teams could move from sea level to a more than 7,000 feet altitude in Mexico City within days, while heat stress levels may also vary considerably across host cities, depending on kickoff times and whether stadiums are open-air or climate-controlled.
The wet-bulb globe temperature — a measure combining temperature, humidity, wind and solar radiation to estimate heat stress on the body — is estimated during the World Cup to range from 66 degrees to 73 degrees Fahrenheit in Vancouver, British Columbia, and Seattle to close to 85 degrees in Dallas, Houston and Miami during afternoon periods, although actual on-field conditions will vary.
Alongside these environmental demands, teams may also face flights of four to six hours and time zone shifts of up to three hours between matches.
England’s potential routes through the tournament illustrate how environmental and logistical demands may shift depending on results.
Winning its group could, counterintuitively, produce a more demanding pathway, both in distance traveled and environmental variability — potentially involving a round-of-16 match in Mexico City followed by a quarterfinal in Miami.
Finishing as the group runner-up, meanwhile, would keep England at lower altitude and in more thermally moderated environments — passing through Toronto, one of the coolest venues in the tournament, and a climate-controlled stadium in Dallas. The quarterfinal would be in Los Angeles, where a noon kickoff at SoFi Stadium’s open-sided, translucent-roof venue would represent the most exposed match environment on that pathway before the final, though still within more moderate thermal limits than Southern venues such as Miami or Houston.
Despite the complexity of the 2026 World Cup, international tournaments often reward simplicity rather than trying to control everything. For Bahtijarevic, the fundamentals still matter most.
“Do the basics, the simple things well, and minimize change,” he said. “Ask the player, ‘How do you feel? How did you sleep? How did you eat?’ No blood measure or technology has ever come close to these basics.”
In his view, international soccer is “a place of minimum interventions for maximum impact.”
The 2026 World Cup will bring a unique mix of environmental and logistical challenges, but that uncertainty and unpredictability are also part of what makes a World Cup so compelling.
For those watching, the effects are often subtle but visible. Games can slow as heat, travel and fatigue build across the tournament, with small mistakes appearing later in matches, and extra time placing even greater strain on players physically and mentally.
In a tournament defined by complexity, the advantage may go to those who best manage uncertainty while keeping things simple. As Forsythe put it, “You’ve got to have a big toolbox of options” — and for 2026, that toolbox may need to be even bigger.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times