Raising the bar?

The role of science in sport is becoming ever more important, and with the Olympic Games upon us we turn our attention to slippery swimmers, windy runners and biomechanics to ask: Just what is science doing for modern Olympic sports? 

The 31st Modern Olympics in Rio de Janeiro Brazil will see thousands of people travel across the world to witness athletes at the peak of their abilities. Those athletes will be competing for the chance to be crowned the best athlete in the world in their discipline, with the Paralympics a month later. The Olympics have been witness to a wide range of different methods aided by scientific knowledge as athletes try to give themselves an edge.

Starting with nylon swimsuits in 1950, Lycra in 1980 and then woven elastane-nylon and polyurethane (LZR) in 2008, swimmers, for example, have always been looking at the ways to reduce water resistance that can allow them to break world records. At the 2008 Summer Olympics, 98% of all medals were won by swimmers wearing Speedo’s newly designed LZR Racer swimsuit. In addition, 23 of 25 world records were broken by athletes wearing the swimsuit. The swimsuit, while leaving the arms uncovered, covered the rest of the swimmer’s body to just above their ankles. Clear evidence then, that performance is not all about the athlete’s prowess.

Due to the sudden surge in swimming records being broken, the International Swimming Federation (FINA) declared in 2009, that “men’s swimsuits shall not extend above the navel or below the knee. Women’s swimsuits shall not cover the neck or extend past the shoulders, or below the knee,” for swimming competitions. This inevitably led to the modification of the design of the swimsuit. Swimming is far from the only sport to be affected by changes in technology – for example vaulting poles bear no resemblance to those used at the first modern Olympic Games in 1896. From hardwoods such as ash or hickory to bamboo used until the 1940s, to steel and aluminium in the 50s and 60s, during which fibreglass poles were introduced, these different materials have played a part in world records rising from 3.3m in 1896 to 6.14m in 2014.

[caption id="attachment_54520" align="alignnone" width="620"] Materials used for swimming has changed hugely from what was once used in Olympic contests.
Pavel L Photo and Video / Shutterstock.com[/caption]

To ensure advances in science do not create an unfair advantage, the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) ‘closely follow’ technological developments in sports. Imre Matrahazi, Technical Manager at the IAAF Competitions Department says, “We are closely following the technological developments in our sport and, if necessary, we amend the rules to accommodate them. The introduction of transponder times, the role of the scientific measurement judge or the video referee are some additions from the past ten years. Safety is also our concern and the ruling on the hammer cage reflects that.” In 2003, to lower the risk of harm to other competitors, the IAAF changed the mandatory dimensions for the hammer cage. Other sports such as cycling have had performances positively affected by advances in science. Bike materials have ranged from steel, aluminium alloys and titanium to, most frequently nowadays for competitive cycling, carbon fibre.

In 2015, British Cycling, the national cycling governing body, agreed a five year deal with Canadian bike company Cervélo to assist them with frame production as well as research and development. Peter Bentley is head of Research and Innovation at the English Institute of Sport (EIS). He says: “We have been engaged in a huge amount of work to optimise each set up on each bike for each individual athlete to the nth degree to millimetre precision.” The athletes who have been working with the EIS will step out at Rio, knowing large amounts of data have been used to analyse, critique and improve their performance. With vast leaps made in computing, data has become more and more integral to how athletes train. Bentley explains though, that data without concurrent intervention on the basis of that data is useless. “You can record as much data as you like but unless you change something in an athlete’s programme as a result of having that data, you’ll be wasting your time.”

To ensure advances in science do not create an unfair advantage, the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) ‘closely follow’ technological developments in sports.

The feedback provided from training is instrumental for an athlete. Sports such as swimming and cycling, which he calls benchmark sports – as they have absolute values that determine performance – rely on this data. “Benchmark sports will look at the numbers and the impact of them,” says Bentley. “In athletics, for example, you will analyse times and see if there was headwind or tailwind and the effect of that on performance.” An example of this would be the time it takes for an athlete to run 100m. If an athlete could run it in less than 10 seconds, then there was a very likely chance they would medal at Rio, he adds. Bentley admits, for all the work that he and his team of 30 carry out, the biggest variable is the individual athlete. “At the end of the day there’s an athlete in the middle of this and they are a highly complex individual that’s a bit unpredictable. We never have the luxury in sport of carrying out controlled trials, one programme with 10 athletes and a different one with another 10, we don’t have that. There’s always random variability and performance that makes it essentially impossible to know.” However Bentley said the work him and his team have done should see a specific performance impact in probably 5-10 medals in the Olympic Games.

Nutrition is an integral part of making sure athletes can recover from injuries, build muscle if needed and stay in peak condition before competing. Kevin Currell, Head of Performance Nutrition at EIS, says determinants, such as how fast or far an athlete wanted to run, or how high they wanted to jump would be taken into consideration before looking at the food that would influence that. “In the case of a weightlifter, you’d know they would have to lift a certain weight to win a category, so some determinants would include muscle strength determined by muscular properties, size of muscles, and how nutrients influence those pathways.”

The amount of calories an athlete needs to consume during training can vary from 1,500 for a small gymnast to 6,000 a day for a triathlete. Athletes also need to consume specific food groups at specific times during their training. For example, an athlete using interval training would consume carbohydrates before, during and after training, with protein included in the post-training meal. How does this change if an athlete was injured? Different foods and vitamins/minerals are advised to aid recovery, depending on the injury. A bone injury would require extra calcium and Vitamin D. Tendon injury? Currell says beetroot juice to improve blood flow to the tendon and quicken the healing process. Since the last Olympics, nutrition has improved immeasurably, he says. Athletes are screened for Vitamin D and iron deficiency, and have their weight and body fat/muscle percentage measured. With the aid of a strength and conditioning coach, work is carried out with the athlete to see how dietary tweaks affect their power to weight ratio.

The amount of calories an athlete needs to consume during training can vary from 1,500 for a small gymnast to 6,000 a day for a triathlete.

So we are at the stage where athletes are consuming the right foods and nutrients and are receiving continuous positive data feedback on their training. But how do they make best use of this information? To get that extra percent or two that can be the difference between finishing first in a 400m race or third, their form and technique must be placed under the microscope. Step forward biomechanics. This discipline optimises athletes’ individual ‘signatures’ such as body posture, timing and the amount and/or direction of force. A famous example of the effect of biomechanics is the Fosbury Flop, used by high jumpers all over the world. It was created by American high jumper Dick Fosbury in 1965 due to difficulties he had with usual high jump methods at the time. Fosbury’s method of going over the bar backwards enabled him to collect a gold medal at the 1968 Mexico Olympics. This method is much more successful because it shifts the jumper’s centre of mass below the bar instead of above the bar, allowing them to jump higher than using previous techniques. The athletes’ movements are scrutinised using video or 3D capture, force analysis of torque on a knee or ankle joint, accelerometers and electromyography. Using specialist equipment, the biomechanics team can observe how muscles contract and also measure the timings of the contractions. This allows the team to prevent injuries, for example, by adjusting the positioning of a cyclist, canoeist or kayaker as they compete to avoid muscular damage.

The use of physics and maths in biomechanics has changed a lot since 2012, says Dr Worsfold, EIS head of biomechanics. “How we capture information is different and our understanding is getting better and better. We struggled to collect real detailed information in extreme environments previously such as sprint canoeing and white water kayaking. In 2012 it was 2D video capture – now we can capture information in three dimensions.” Of course, the Olympics aren’t the only event happening in Rio – less than three weeks after the closing ceremony – it’ll be the start of the Paralympic Games. For a number of events, athletes will be using blades, which began to receive more worldwide attention when worn by now-imprisoned ex-Paralympic competitor Oscar Pistorius. Ottobock are one of the many companies that provide blades for athletes.

Loren Blocker, developmental engineer at the Ottobock manufacturing plant in Salt Lake City, Utah says the blades are made using pre-impregnated carbon fibre. During the research and development phase for a blade, it is put through rigorous testing of almost 350,000 strides, equivalent to 1000km. Carbon fibre is used for blades as it is lightweight and strong, with its stiffness able to be tweaked depending on the athlete’s preferences. For an athlete who has lots of power remaining in residual limbs, they may want something stiffer to drive more power. Blocker says: “We’re creating a spring which is very similar to a standard coil spring in a much different design, trying to minimise energy loss that goes in turning kinetic energy into potential energy. Ideally you’d be able to get back 100% in a perfect system but in reality we get something in the 90% range.” The problem facing blade manufacturers is maximising the kinetic energy output from what the athlete puts in. Without going into more detail, Blocker says there are different ways to achieve certain force/ground reactions to help the athlete. To increase grip, which can increase performance times, spikes are put on blades either by Ottobock or the athlete themselves.

[caption id="attachment_54521" align="alignnone" width="620"] Running blades were first used in the 1970s by Van Phillips, an amputee.[/caption]

And the elephant in the room – do blades help athletes perform better than able-bodied ones? Simply put - no. Blocker explains, “The blades do not give an advantage - you’ll never be able to replace the human musculature with a purely mechanical system. Having calf, thigh muscles and all of the complexities of the knee – it’s a much more efficient system. If you take away some horsepower from a car then put something else in place it’s still going to be less efficient. An able bodied person is going to be more efficient than an amputee.” Let’s set the scene - the 2016 100m final, a chance to be crowned the world’s fastest man and the competitors begin to walk, jog or jump towards the starting blocks. As the competitors ready themselves in anticipation for the starting pistol to fire, there’s one important piece of technology many of them probably haven’t even considered - the track. Olympic running tracks are made by MONDO and have been used at the Olympics since the 1976 Montreal games. For the 11th consecutive time, they will have their products used at the Olympics. How do their tracks work though?

There are two layers of a MONDO track - a solid rubber surface and a honeycomb-structured backing. The solid rubber skeleton contains an internal skeleton made up of a three-dimensional network of deformable elements with controlled composition and elasticity. The honeycomb backing contains air pockets that can compress, providing both shock absorption and more elasticity. MONDO claim when the athlete's foot touches the surface of the track, the layer underneath deforms, converting kinetic energy into stored energy, which is then released back into the athlete’s foot as it leaves the surface, similar to the carbon fibre blades mentioned earlier. The bottom layer of the track also reduces the time interval between foot rolling between the first and fifth metatarsals - the body's natural shock absorbers in the foot - reducing the risk of injury and allowing competitors to run faster.

The blades do not give an advantage - you’ll never be able to replace the human musculature with a purely mechanical system

The Olympic Games will always continue to amaze and entertain millions of people across the worlds, who cheer on their respective nations to win a gold medal. But the next time you look at an athlete about to run from the starting blocks, or dive into a swimming pool, perhaps you’ll think of what science has done to enable the athletes to make the events as competitive as possible for your enjoyment.