Olympic Team Research Articles

Gender in martial arts and combat sports

Objective: In this paper, we offer a general picture of gender research in sport as a whole, in those specifically understood as masculine, and in martial arts and combat sports (MACS), until refining our scope and focus specifically on karate. Methodology: The Spanish women’s Olympic karate team was researched by us exactly when this MACS achieved the temporary condition of an Olympic sport, in Tokyo 2020 (2021). Results and discussion: We seek to provide a critical perspective on how karate practices and professional interventions require action to become more of an empowering tool/place than one where power is unfairly exerted over others with the excuse of hierarchies and tradition. Conclusion: We conclude the article envisioning and suggesting a few actions that could add to improve karate and broad MACS environments in the direction of more equitable, diverse and inclusive spaces and pedagogy through queering them.

Beyond Winning: Examining Sociodemographic and Sport Factors Associated with Doping Attitudes in High-Performance Sport Coaches Involved in Olympic Team Sports

Coaches have a significant impact on the lives and development of athletes, so understanding the factors that influence their doping attitudes (DA) are particularly important. The aim of this study was to investigate sport-specific and sociodemographic correlates of DA among high-level sport coaches involved in Olympic team sports (soccer, basketball, handball, and volleyball). The participants were high-level coaches from Kosovo (n = 113, age: 42.99±10.9 years). Previously validated questionnaires were used for testing all participants, asking them about sociodemographic-, sport- factors, doping-related-factors (all predictors), and DA (criterion). Logistic regression for binarized criterion (negative DA vs. neutral/positive DA) was applied to define the associations between the studied predictors and the DA as an outcome. The results revealed a greater likelihood of neutral/positive DA among male coaches (OR = 2.01, 95% CI: 1.11–2.33) and among those coaches who believe that doping is prevalent in their sport (OR = 1.55, 95% CI: 1.25–1.87). No further associations between the studied predictors and DA were found. Additional studies analyzing other samples, sports and variables are warranted.

Olympic team rowers and team swimmers show altered functional brain activation during working memory and action inhibition

BackgroundHigh-level expertise in team-sports is associated with superior performance on executive functions (EFs) such as working memory (WM) and action inhibition, and with altered activation of brain areas related to these EFs. In most such studies, athletes were sampled from the domain of dynamic (i.e., open-skill) team-sports (e.g., soccer players). Whether static (i.e., closed-skill) team-sports athletes (e.g., rowers and synchronized swimmers) also show superior EFs performance and differential EF-related functional brain activation remains unknown. MethodsWe recruited 14 elite closed-skill athletes, all national champions, and internationally competitive in various rowing disciplines, as well as 14 controls matched on gender, age, and education, and had them perform working memory and action inhibition (stop-signal) tasks during fMRI scanning. ResultsGroup differences in performance in either task failed to obtain statistical significance, although athletes showed a numerical trend toward higher WM capacity than controls. Importantly, task-related BOLD responses suggested that Olympic closed-skill team athletes show stronger recruitment of brain areas that emphasize relatively stable task demands and weaker engagement of brain areas that emphasize rapidly changing demands imposed by extraneous stimulation. ConclusionFunctional brain imaging data suggest elite closed-skill athletes may employ different cognitive strategies.

Characteristics of Vitamin D Concentration in Elite Israeli Olympic Athletes.

The prevalence of vitamin D deficiency has been a growing concern in recent years. Vitamin D is important in many of the body's physiological systems, such as the musculoskeletal, cardiovascular and immune functions. A deficiency of vitamin D in athletes may negatively impact both muscle functions and recovery and, thus, affect performance and increase the risk of injury. Many studies assessed the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in athletes; however, as of today, there are no official recommendations/protocols for screening vitamin D levels in athletes, and only a few studies were performed in male and female elite athletes (i.e., Olympic level), in different sport disciplines. We investigated the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency among athletes entering the Israeli Olympic team. A total of 761 samples of Vitamin D(OH)25 from 334 athletes were analyzed. For this analysis, we used the first test the athlete had performed when joining the Olympic team. The prevalence of vitamin D deficiency (<50 nmol/L, as defined by the Endocrine Society Committee) was investigated according to gender, types of sports and outdoor vs. indoor sports through the different seasons of the Israeli Olympic team athletes. Twenty-five athletes (7.5%) were diagnosed with vitamin D deficiency. One hundred and thirty-one athletes (39.2%) had insufficient levels of vitamin D (50-75 nmol/L). The highest incidence of vitamin D deficiency was found amongst gymnastics and combat sport athletes. A significant difference was also found in vitamin D concentration between seasons. Vitamin D average concentration in the winter was 74.1 nmol/L compared to 86.4 nmol/L in the Summer (p < 0.0005). Due to the importance of vitamin D to athletic performance and the high prevalence of deficiency and insufficiency, we suggest careful and frequent monitoring of groups at risk, including elite athletes, especially in susceptible sports and during the winter. Future studies are necessary to investigate the effectiveness of Vitamin D supplementation in athletes with low baseline vitamin D levels.

Ernest Wilimowski – Polish and German National Team Player with an Unspecified Nationality

Athlete migration is not only an effect of contemporary globalization. Football migration is nothing new and has a long and complex history. Ernest Wilimowski, who was the only football player to represent both Poland and Germany, is a part of that history. Wilimowski was born in 1916 in Katowice, which was then part of the German Reich. In 1922, Katowice and a part of Upper Silesia were annexed to Poland. Wilimowski won the Polish football league four times. In the Polish national team, he scored 21 goals in 22 matches. In 1936, for infringing the amateur rules, he was dropped from the Olympic team and did not take part in the Berlin games. In 1938, he took part in the World Cup in France. Following Germany’s attack on Poland in 1939, he started playing for German clubs, and in 1941 made his debut in the Third Reich’s national team, in which he played eight times and scored 13 goals. Wilimowski was a modern athlete unconfined by national ties. Despite a complex political situation in Europe, he strived to achieve his sports objectives and his decisions were based on pragmatic motives.

ŽENSKA ORODNA TELOVADBA V BRAZILIJI: NJENE POTI OD 1966 DO 2021

Brazilian men’s and women’s Artistic Gymnastics (AG) has been in the spotlight due to the results of some outstanding athletes in the most important international competitions over the last 20 years. However, the development of this sport in the national context does not reflect these achievements. This article performs a critical analysis of Women’s Artistic Gymnastics (WAG) in Brazil, reviewing the trajectory of the main gymnasts and their achievements in the World Championships and Olympic Games from 1966 to 2021, as well as relevant contextual facts during this historical period. Medals in major events have been won since 2001, with gradual and unstable growth, placing Brazil among the most prominent countries. Nevertheless, the data suggest that the achievements were based on concentrated investment in elite gymnasts, mainly in the Olympic team, with the support of already established clubs. The development is still centralized in a few clubs, without showing a sustainable increase in the number of clubs and gymnasts. In this scenario, there is a need for a long-term plan that can sustain the development of the national ecosystem (clubs, local competitions, provincial federations) across all age-group categories and in connection with the national teams..

Richard M. Suinn (1933-2024).

Richard M. Suinn, an eminent psychologist known for his work in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), sports psychology, ethnic minority issues, and professional association leadership, passed away on January 5, 2024, in Fort Collins, Colorado, at the age of 90 years. Suinn was born on May 8, 1933, in Hawai'i. Suinn was an expert in anxiety management and developed the widely used Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale. He was the first psychologist appointed team psychologist to a U.S. Olympic team, applying his CBT expertise to five Olympic teams. Suinn developed the Suinn-Lew Asian Self-Identity Acculturation Scale, the most widely used measure of Asian American acculturation. He served as a president of the American Psychological Association (APA) where he opened the door for APA presidents of color, and the Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) and a member of the Board of Directors of APA, the American Psychological Foundation, American Board of Professional Psychology, Association for the Advancement of Psychology, ABCT, and the Asian American Psychological Association (AAPA). (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Exhaled and Systemic Biomarkers to Aid the Diagnosis of Bronchial Asthma in Elite Water Sports Athletes.

Our aim was to evaluate the accuracy of a combined airway inflammatory biomarker assessment in diagnosing asthma in elite water sports athletes. Members of the Hungarian Olympic and Junior Swim Team and elite athletes from other aquatic disciplines were assessed for asthma by objective lung function measurements, and blood eosinophil count (BEC), serum total immunoglobulin E (IgE), fractional exhaled nitric oxide (F ENO ) measurements, and skin prick testing were performed. A scoring system from BEC, F ENO , serum IgE, and skin test positivity was constructed by dichotomizing the variables and assigning a score of 1 if the variable is elevated. These scores were summed to produce a final composite score ranging from 0 to 4. A total of 48 participants were enrolled (age 21 ± 4 yr, 42% male), of which 22 were diagnosed with asthma. Serum total IgE and F ENO levels were higher in asthmatic individuals (68 [27-176] vs 24 [1-43], P = 0.01; 20 [17-26] vs 15 [11-22], P = 0.02), and positive prick test was also more frequent (55% vs 8%, P < 0.01). Asthmatic participants had higher composite variable scores (2 [1-3] vs 1 [0-1], P = 0.02). Receiver operating characteristic analysis showed that total IgE, F ENO , and composite variable were suitablefor identifying asthmatic participants (area under the curve = 0.72, P = 0.01; 0.70, P = 0.02, and 0.69, P = 0.03). A composite score of >2 reached a specificity of 96.2%, a sensitivity of 36.4%, and a likelihood ratio of 9.5. Logistic regression model revealed a strong association between the composite variable and the asthma diagnosis (OR = 2.71, 95% confidence interval = 1.17-6.23, P = 0.02). Our data highlight the diagnostic value of combined assessment of Th2-type inflammation in elite water sports athletes. The proposed scoring system may be helpful in ruling in asthma in this population upon clinical suspicion.

The Jews

Abstract: An essay in response to the events at the Munich Summer Olympics in 1972. The author discusses their response to the Palestinian militant organization, Black September's demand for the release of over two hundred prisoners. Additionally, the militants killed two members of the Israeli Olympic team and took nine hostages in concert with their demands. Refusal of the demand caused the death of all nine of the hostages and five of the militants. The author speaks of their connection to Judaism and the connections, ideas, responses, and relationships the religion has instilled within their life. This essay questions ideas of humanity, monstrosity, and the desensitized nature of our cultures.

Injury and illness among Norwegian Olympic athletes during preparation for five consecutive Summer and Winter Games

ObjectiveTo describe the patterns of health problems among Norwegian Olympic candidates during their preparations for five consecutive Olympic Games (London 2012, Sochi 2014, Rio de Janeiro 2016, PyeongChang 2018 and...

Cardiological Functional Assessment of National Olympic Team of Kazakhstan.

The methods used in this study were 12-lead resting electrocardiography (ECG), echocardiography, cardiointervalography, cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET), and HyperQ stress testing. One case was detected via 12-lead resting ECG. Another case of the slowdown of the heart rate (HR) recovery was detected via cardiointervalography with no clinical signs and normal ECG. The HyperQ stress testing of the women's basketball team detected a positive result in four leads in one athlete. Our results demonstrate that the CV systems of athletes require the implementation of several diagnostic methods in rest and stress conditions for more precise evaluation, with each of the methods fulfilling the whole picture for the prevention of such tragic events as sudden cardiac death and sudden cardiac arrest.

Exploring the Barriers to Physical Education Opportunities in India’s Schools: A Study of Parental Perceptions after the Unprecedented Performance at the Tokyo Olympics

This qualitative study explored parents’ perceptions of physical education (PE) subject following the success of the Indian Olympic team in the Tokyo Olympics. Six focus-group discussions were organized across the Delhi and National Capital Region (NCR) of India. The participants were 24 parents, 13 (54.16%) of whom were males and 11 (45.84%) were females. Data were analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis, which revealed five superordinate themes: (1) educating the public, (2) developing a support system, (3) advocating for PE, (4) developing policies and justifications, and (5) leveraging the relationship between the Olympics and PE. This study suggests that the Olympic results should be leveraged to promote PE; however, strategies that will encourage parents to involve themselves formally and effectively in their children’s school PE are needed.

A tale of two scandals: scale shift and the inefficacy of crisis communication management in Olympic scandals

IntroductionMega sporting events, such as the Olympic Games, provide niche sports with unique opportunities to attract public attention. However, scandals during these events can pose serious threats to these sports. In particular, if a sport scandal enables hostile stakeholders to achieve a scale shift, it becomes almost impossible for a niche sport organization to manage the scandal.MethodsThe article employs a comparative research design that examines the trajectory of two scandals related to the German Olympic team that differ with regard to the occurrence of a scale shift. The first scandal involved a racist slur made by a German official during a cycling event; the second scandal was a case of animal cruelty during the modern pentathlon's equestrian event. Research relies on a mix of qualitative document analyses and quantitative analyses of the German Twitter discourse on both scandals. The analyses focus on the vulnerability to scandals, the potential for contentious politics, the scandal triggering events, the crisis communication, the reception, and the outcomes of both scandals.Results and discussionOur results show the detrimental impact of a scale shift on niche sports. The animal cruelty scandal put the future of the modern pentathlon at the Olympics at risk and triggered far-reaching reforms. The case supports the idea that a scale shift becomes more likely if there exists an effective collective action frame. In contrast, the German sports organizations effectively ended the racist slur scandal by imposing a limited sanction on the offender.

‘I’ve Always Fought a Little against the Tide to Get Where I Want to Be’—Construction of Women’s Embodied Subjectivity in the Contested Terrain of High-Level Karate

Karate can be both a martial art and a combat sport. Male and female karate athletes attended the Tokyo Olympic Games 2020 (2021). Elite sport often portrays female athletes through the sexualization of their bodies, while the martial environment leaves them open to accusations of masculinization. In the process of constructing themselves as fighters, karateka women do produce new ways of performing femininities and masculinities, which is a hard-work process of negotiations, leading them to the construction of a particular habitus strictly linked to their performativity within the environment. They take part in a contested terrain that mixes several elements that are often contrasting. In this article, we aim to present factors identified with the women athletes of the Spanish Olympic karate team that affect the construction of their embodied subjectivities. We focus on two main topics, authenticity as the real deal to belonging, and a possible gendered habitus struggling with the achievement of the condition of a warrior. We carried out an ethnographic study with the Spanish Olympic karate squad supported by autoethnographic elements from the first author. We focus here on the data from double interviews with 14 women athletes and their four male coaches. Embodied subjectivity as a process of subject construction to disrupt objectification and forms of othering showed to be a challenge, a complex task, and embedded in contradictions. Karate women’s embodied subjectivities are built in the transit between resisting and giving in. Despite several difficulties, through awareness and reflection on limitations, karateka may occupy their place as subjects, exerting agency, feeling empowered, and fighting consciously against the naturalized ‘tide’.

Surgical Olympic team as a Way to Develop Motivation among Students and the Realities of Senior Life as a Cause of Demotivation

Team building is the process of forming a team whose members are united by a common goal, have well–developed procedures for coordinating their actions in achieving concrete results, and are mutually responsible for the results of their activities based on a common vision of the situation. This thesis is devoted to the formation of positive motivational characteristics of students taking part in the Olympic surgical team of Far Eastern State Medical University, and the study of factors that reduce this motivation.

English

In sport sailing, there are three fundamental pillars of performance for dinghy sailors (physical condition, cognitive ability and equipment). One of the decisive moments in a single-handed dinghy race is sailing upwind, as it requires a high physical demand from the sailors to keep the boat flat and make the best decisions according to the tactical conditions of the race. The objective of the research is (i) to analyze the performance of elite sailors on the hiking position in a dynamic virtual sailing situation and (ii) to measure the lower body muscle fatigue in the hiking action. The sample consisted of 10 sailors from the Ilca sailing class and belonging to the Olympic teams of the Norwegian, Mexican and Spanish national teams, 6 of them men (Mage=31.67, SDage=6.861) and 4 women, (Mage=30.50, SDage=4.655). The fatigue protocol consisted of a static test and a dynamic test of the sac body position. Both tests measure the sailors’ effort up to extreme fatigue or loss of position. The test was performed on the vSail-Trainer® sailing simulator, which allows to reproduce real sailing conditions and displays data on boat control variables. The results obtained show statistically significant differences between the group of women and men on boat speed (P=0.039), distance sailed (P&lt;0.001) and hiking effort (P=0.002). There are statistically significant differences in lower body power pre and post fatigue test. This does not lead to the conclusion that the simulator is a valid tool to assess fatigue specifically in Ilca class sailors.

Coupling in Sport

China’s rise in recent years to become an economic superpower has been accompanied by active policies to promote sport and culture. Once chosen by the Olympic Committee in 2015 to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, China faced a problem since its hockey team was not strong and could potentially be humiliated in the climax events of the Games. The Chinese Ice Hockey Association (CIHA) decided on a strategic coupling with Canadian hockey expertise to create credible men’s and women’s hockey teams, including hiring Canadian coaches, taking teams to Canada for extended professional training, playing exhibition games against Canadian teams, inviting Canadian hockey teams and players to China, and recruiting Canadian hockey players with Chinese heritage to play professionally in China on the HC Kunlun Red Star team (men) and the KRS Vanke Rays (women). We label this relationship a global player production network. However, the strict Covid lockdown in China and the froideur that developed in Canada-China geopolitical relations after the detention in Vancouver of Meng Wanzhou and the arrest in China of Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, was followed by a decoupling of the Canada-China hockey relationship. But by granting national status to Canadian-born “heritage” players, and by selecting at the eleventh hour the Kunlun Red Star and Vanke Ray teams as their Olympic teams, China effectively re-coupled with Canada and was thereby able to field two credible hockey teams.

Understanding Olympic Diplomacy: The Refugee Team at the 2020 Tokyo Games

At the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, 29 athletes competed for the Olympic Refugee Team. It was the second time in the history of the Summer Olympic Games that athletes from different origins but living under refugee conditions competed under the same flag. This article aims to analyze the composition of the refugee team, identifying the connections between the athletes' points of origin and destination and the status of official refugee data around the world. As a result, it is observed that the Olympic refugee team plays an important role in giving visibility to this social issue, which is an expensive topic nowadays and enables high-performance athletes not to be excluded from the Olympic Games due to political problems. There is also an important political and diplomatic role played by the International Olympic Committee, allowing the presence of these athletes, but also of competitors from countries that are points of origin for refugees. However, there are still some challenges, such as the concentration of athletes currently living in Europe, facing a low number of refugees who live elsewhere, despite a large number of refugees living in other continents.&#x0D;

A-71 Olympic team rowers and team swimmers show altered functional brain activation during working memory and action inhibition

Abstract Purpose High-level expertise in team-sports has been found to be associated with superior performance on executive functions (EFs) such as working memory (WM) and action inhibition, and with altered activation of brain areas related to these EFs. In most such studies, athletes were sampled from the domain of dynamic (i.e., open-skill) team-sports (e.g., soccer players). Whether static (i.e., closed-skill) team-sports athletes (e.g., rowers and synchronized swimmers) show superior EFs performance and differential EF-related functional brain activation as well remains unknown. Methods We recruited 14 elite closed-skill athletes, all national champions, and internationally competitive in various rowing disciplines, as well as 14 controls matched on gender, age, and education, and had them perform working memory and action inhibition (stop-signal) tasks during functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanning. Results Group differences in performance in either task failed to obtain statistical significance, although athletes showed a numerical trend toward higher WM capacity than controls. Importantly, task-related BOLD responses suggested that Olympic closed-skill team athletes show stronger recruitment of brain areas that emphasize relatively stable task demands and weaker engagement of brain areas that emphasize rapidly changing demands imposed by extraneous stimulation. Conclusions Functional brain imaging data suggest that elite closed-skill athletes may employ different cognitive strategies.

Medals, Rings, and Olympic Dreams: A Review Essay of Antonio Sotomayor and Cesar R. Torres, eds., Olimpismo

Medals, Rings, and Olympic Dreams: A Review Essay of Antonio Sotomayor and Cesar R. Torres, eds., <i>Olimpismo</i>