Winter Olympic Sport Research Articles

Where is the research on sport-related concussion in Olympic athletes? A descriptive report and assessment of the impact of access to multidisciplinary care on recovery

ObjectivesThis cohort study reported descriptive statistics in athletes engaged in Summer and Winter Olympic sports who sustained a sport-related concussion (SRC) and assessed the impact of access to multidisciplinary care...

IOC Olympian Health Cohort: a study protocol for a 15-year, prospective, Olympian health study across Summer and Winter Olympic sports

Prevention of sports injury and illness and protection of athlete health are key mandates of the IOC. Methodological limitations in Olympic Games surveillance and retired Olympian studies mean there are...

ANALYSIS OF TRAINING PROGRAMS FOR SKIERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

The article analyzes the peculiarities of building the training process of the Finnish training system and the training system of Ukrainian athletes. The analysis of the curriculum has shown that the Finnish system of training skiers is based on the creation of clubs, since this is the basic system of organizing the training process. A ski club is an attractive and stimulating environment for creating a solid foundation for a lifelong passion. The ski training system is developed in accordance with the recommendations of the Finnish Olympic Committee. The curriculum for children's and youth sports schools in Ukraine is based on many years of experience of coaches and specialists in winter Olympic and non-Olympic sports. The training program for Ukrainian skiers is aimed at systematizing the training process from initial training groups to groups of higher sports skills, providing coaches with a unified planning structure, a system of means and methods of physical education. The curricula envisage adherence to the same principles of ski training. The methods and means of training differ between schools. The requirements stipulated in the training programs for skiers in both countries are mandatory for all clubs and youth sports schools and must be implemented in accordance with training locations, climatic conditions, material and technical facilities, etc.

Who Is to Blame and What Is to Be Done? The Rise and Fall of Russian Authority in the Olympics

Who Is to Blame and What Is to Be Done? The Rise and Fall of Russian Authority in the Olympics

ANALYSIS OF TRAINING PROGRAMS FOR SKIERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

The article analyzes the peculiarities of building the training process of the Finnish training system and the training system of Ukrainian athletes. The analysis of the curriculum has shown that the Finnish system of training skiers is based on the creation of clubs, since this is the basic system of organizing the training process. A ski club is an attractive and stimulating environment for creating a solid foundation for a lifelong passion. The ski training system is developed in accordance with the recommendations of the Finnish Olympic Committee. The curriculum for children's and youth sports schools in Ukraine is based on many years of experience of coaches and specialists in winter Olympic and non-Olympic sports. The training program for Ukrainian skiers is aimed at systematizing the training process from initial training groups to groups of higher sports skills, providing coaches with a unified planning structure, a system of means and methods of physical education. The curricula envisage adherence to the same principles of ski training. The methods and means of training differ between schools. The requirements stipulated in the training programs for skiers in both countries are mandatory for all clubs and youth sports schools and must be implemented in accordance with training locations, climatic conditions, material and technical facilities, etc.

Optimization of Environmental Parameters of Ice and Snow Sports Venues Based on the BP Neural Network and Wireless Communication Technology

Ice and snow sports have become a scene of attraction nowadays. It not only encourages sports but also earns more revenue through tourism. Tourists love and admire this kind of sport because of its uniqueness, unlike other sports. The Olympic Games also conduct ice and snow sports under the Winter Olympic Sports. This kind of sport is played in ice rinks. Ice rinks are of two types, namely, natural and artificial. Natural ice rinks are formed in snowy regions, whereas artificial ice rinks can be set up anywhere with the help of technology. An artificial or natural ice rink, a sports venue, or a stadium is constructed accordingly. This research focuses on the optimization of environmental parameters of the ice and snow sports venue based on the BP neural network and wireless communication technology. There are various factors to be monitored when an indoor ice and snow sports venue is being considered. They are temperature monitoring, health monitoring of the audience, natural disaster detection and alarm in the case of natural ice rinks, and building safety concerning the climatic conditions. The proposed methodology uses BP neural networks and wireless communication technology to optimize the environmental parameters of the ice and snow sports venue. It has been demonstrated to have numerous advantages over traditional ice and snow sports methods. In this research, the convolutional BP neural network algorithm was implemented to analyse the environmental parameters of the chosen sport. The proposed algorithm is compared with the existing weighted centroid model. The results show that the proposed model has achieved an accuracy of 99.45%.

RETRACTED ARTICLE: The sustainable development information management of Winter Olympics based on Internet-based wireless sensor network

Environment is the foundation for human survival. Sustainable development is the main direction of social progress and the common choice of human progress. The development of the Winter Olympic Games is closely related to the progress of mankind and society. Therefore, it is particularly important to study the sustainable development of the Winter Olympic Games. Based on this, an Internet-based wireless sensor for Winter Olympic environment information acquisition scheme is proposed. The hardware and sensor modules of the wireless sensor are designed, and the adaptive weighting algorithm is used to fuse several wireless sensor nodes. By testing and analyzing the communication ability of a single wireless sensor node and the error rate under different distance, the data is collected for the environment information of a Winter Olympic sports field. The results of the data collection are very close to the actual environmental parameters. It shows that the wireless sensor network system based on the Internet has strong stability and reliability in data collection. It can provide effective data support for the information management research of sustainable development of Winter Olympic Games.

Sociodemographic profile of an Olympic team

ObjectivesTo document the distribution of sociodemographic markers (race and relative access to wealth) in athletes participating at the summer and Winter Olympic Games (OGs). Study designCross-sectional descriptive epidemiological study. MethodsSociodemographic data were collected from publically available resources for all athletes representing four countries (Canada, United States of America, Great Britain and Australia) at the 2014 Sochi Winter OGs and 2016 Rio Summer OGs. The prevalence of white and privately educated athletes were identified for each sport, country, and team with consideration and comparison to the general population. Access indices (i.e. the combined race socio-economic access index [CAI]) were developed to describe the relative distribution of white and privately educated athletes representing each sport, country and team compared to the respective general population. ResultsA total of 568 winter and 1643 summer athletes were included in this study. Privately educated athletes constituted 30.3% and 32.7% of winter and summer athletes, respectively; while 94.9% of winter and 81.7% of summer athletes were white. The CAIs of the Canadian, American, British and Australian winter Olympic teams were 0.52, 0.42, 0.61 and 0.45, respectively. The CAIs, for the Canadian, American, British and Australian summer Olympic teams were 0.89, 1.13, 0.82 and 0.83, respectively. Summer and winter sports with the greatest and least racial and socio-economic biases were identified. ConclusionRacial and socio-economic biases were identified in both summer and winter Olympic sports; predominantly favouring white and privately educated Olympic athletes. These findings prompt further inquiry into barriers for sport-specific participation and advancement, in addition to the practice of providing substantial public resources in support for Olympic sports and athletes.

INTRINSIC AND EXTRINSIC INJURY RISK FACTORS OF ELITE WINTER SPORTS ATHLETE IN TRAINING

BackgroundMulti-factorial sport injury related models are well accepted for sport medicine scientists and experts. However, injury risk factors research involved with winter sport athletes seems not well documented due to...

Physiological Capacity and Training Routines of Elite Cross-Country Skiers: Approaching the Upper Limits of Human Endurance.

Cross-country (XC) skiing is one of the most demanding of endurance sports, involving protracted competitions on varying terrain employing a variety of skiing techniques that require upper- and/or lower-body work to different extents. Through more effective training and extensive improvements in equipment and track preparation, the speed of cross-country ski races has increased more than that of any other winter Olympic sport, and, in addition, new types of racing events have been introduced. To a certain extent this has altered the optimal physiological capacity required to win, and the training routines of successful skiers have evolved accordingly. The long-standing tradition of researchers working closely with XC-ski coaches and athletes to monitor progress, improve training, and refine skiing techniques has provided unique physiological insights revealing how these athletes are approaching the upper limits of human endurance. This review summarizes current scientific knowledge concerning the demands involved in elite XC skiing, as well as the physiological capacity and training routines of the best athletes.

Analysis of Performance Indices for Simulated Skeleton Descents

In the winter Olympic sport of Skeleton, sliders sprint and load themselves onto the sled facing head forwards. The slider uses primarily their shoulders and torso to apply control to the direction of the sled as it progressively gains speed during its descent. These small control course keeping maneuvers alongside more severe use of toe tapping onto the ice will help determine the eventual trajectory of the sled. It is therefore of interest to consider for a possible trajectory what control actions will determine the fastest descent time and in particular what metrics should be examined. In this paper a three degree-of-freedom simulation has been developed to analyse the influence of different control strategies on the descent time of a bob-skeleton. A proportional-derivative (PD) controller is used to steer the simulation down a representation of the Igls ice-track. Parametric variations of the simulation's performance were analysed and compared to identify possible correlations for controllers assist the design of an optimal controller. Analysis of the results have identified positive correlations between descent time, transverse distance travelled and energy dissipation establishing that the fastest descent time is achieved by minimising the energy lost through the descent.

Fair compensation for gate and wind conditions in ski jumping – estimated from competition data using a mixed model

AbstractSki jumping is a Winter Olympic sport where the athletes try to fly as far as possible with the best possible style on a ski jumping hill. The best athletes may achieve distances around 100 m on the smallest hills and up to 251.5 m (the world record) on a flying hill. The length of a ski jump is affected by the gate from which the jumpers start, where higher gates give higher speed and therefore longer jumps. Wind conditions are also important, head winds tend to give longer jumps and tail winds tend to give shorter jumps. To ensure relatively fair conditions during competitions, a system including gate and wind compensations was introduced from January 2010. If the conditions change considerably during a round, the jury can change the gate number to avoid too long or too short jumps, and the athlete is then given a compensation (positive or negative). Furthermore, the athletes are given a compensation for the wind conditions during their jump. In this paper, the fairness of this compensation system is investigated by an analysis of the results from 80 ski jumping competitions for men arranged in the World Cup, World Championships and Olympics in the 2011/2012, 2012/2013 and 2013/2014 seasons. The analysis is based on a mixed model. I found that the present compensation for gate number is reasonably fair, but with a tendency for 10% over-compensation. On the other hand, I estimate that the present compensation factor for head winds should be increased by 48% (95% CI 40–57%) and for tail winds by 22% (95% CI 16–30%) to fully compensate for wind conditions.

DERIVATION OF VELOCITY/DISTANCE CURVES FROM A WIRELESS INERTIAL MEASUREMENT UNIT INSTRUMENTED BOB-SKELETON SLED AND COMPARISON TO LIGHT GATE AND VIDEO DERIVED VALUES

The sprinting push-start in the Winter Olympic sport of Bob-Skeleton, constitutes 2% and 8% of the 1500 m distance and 70 s duration of each run (Official Results & Track...

The Vancouver ‘big six’ gender-framed: NBC's prime-time coverage of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics

This study represents the first attempt to content-analyse on-air commentary surrounding the six ‘major’ Winter Olympic sports, operationalized as any event receiving at least three hours of aggregate prime-time coverage on the NBC broadcast network. Analysis of all 64 hours of NBC's prime-time coverage of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games revealed 26 significantly different dialogue trends between male and female athletes. Gendered differences in the attribution of athletic success and failure were found in figure skating, alpine skiing and short-track speed skating, but not in bobsledding, freestyle skiing and snowboarding. Gendered differences in personality/physicality descriptors were found in alpine skiing, bobsled, figure skating, freestyle skiing and snowboarding, but not in short-track speed skating. Overall, figure skating generated the most gendered differences in commentary, while snowboarding and freestyle skiing had the fewest differences.

Beyond Figure Skating and Hockey: How U.S. Audiences Gender Type Winter Olympic Sports

Beyond Figure Skating and Hockey: How U.S. Audiences Gender Type Winter Olympic Sports

Epidemiology of Injury in Olympic Sports Dennis J Caine Epidemiology of Injury in Olympic Sports et al International Olympic Committee and Wiley-Blackwell £108 518pp 9781405173643 1405173645 [Formula: see text

THIS EXCELLENT, up-to-date review of injuries in Olympic sports covers types, times and locations of injury, as well as specific contributory conditions. It covers every summer and winter Olympic sport, and pays particular attention to Paralympic events.

Democratization and governance in international sport: addressing issues with athlete involvement in organizational policy

Leaders of national and international sport organizations are increasingly recognising the importance of involving stakeholders in the development of policies. In the governance of international high performance sport, an important group of stakeholders includes athletes. The purpose of this paper is to highlight and discuss the increasing role high performance athletes are playing in the development of policies in international sport organizations.1 We examine how representation and deliberative participation in policy-making allow high performance athletes to not only be represented at policy meetings, but also be involved in the formation of policies that affect them. To showcase athletes' representation and participation in sport policy, a number of international sport examples are presented (i.e. winter and summer Olympic international sport federations as well as the International Olympic Committee, the International Paralympic Committee, and the World Anti-Doping Agency). Several organizations have incorporated more athlete-centred practices that have allowed for greater involvement from athletes. In investigating these cases, we discuss and critique issues, and provide practical recommendations surrounding athlete representation and participation in deliberations and their impact on the policy and decision-making processes of their international sport federation.

Characteristics of performance in skeleton World Cup races

Little is known about performance characteristics in the Winter Olympic sport of skeleton, in which athletes push and then drive a sled down an ice track. In this study, official race times from World Cups held on 11 tracks over four competitive seasons were analysed with linear models for athletes placed in the top 10 (35 males in 22 races; 28 females in 25 races). Mean run time ranged from ∼50 to ∼70 s between tracks. Predictability of individual performance expressed as race-to-race correlations was modest (0.36 for males and females). Differences between tracks in run-to-run variability expressed as coefficients of variation (men: 0.19–0.56%; women: 0.24–0.89%) paralleled differences in popular opinion of technical difficulty of the tracks. There was an inconsistent and overall small relationship between push time and performance time on different tracks (range of correlations, 0.57 to −0.14; mean, 0.21). The home advantages of 0.15% for men and 0.32% for women were trivial and substantial respectively in relation to the smallest important performance changes of 0.18% and 0.23%, derived from race-to-race variability. In conclusion, skeleton athletes show less variability in performance time than athletes in other sports, but tracks vary substantially in difficulty and race outcomes are largely unpredictable.

Iron status in Winter Olympic sports

Iron status was surveyed amongst 92 Winter Olympic sport athletes from Nordic and Alpine skiing, figure and speed skating and ice hockey. Haemoglobin and serum ferritin values were obtained by physicians as part of a monitoring programme, since iron deficiency would have an adverse effect on maximal performance. Four (7%) of 56 men were anaemic (Hb less than 14.0 g dl-1) and three (8%) of 36 women had haemoglobin values less than 12.0 g dl-1. Nine men (16%) and 14 women (39%) had prelatent iron deficiency (serum ferritin less than 30 ng ml-1). Ice hockey had the lowest while Nordic skiing had the highest incidence of sub-optimal iron status. A total of 50% of Nordic women skiers had prelatent iron deficiency and 7% were anaemic. An equal percentage of women speed skaters were low in serum ferritin as well. Only one of 20 male ice hockey players was low in serum ferritin. These results suggest there would be value in instituting screening procedures for iron status in Winter Olympic Sports.

Oxygen uptake during maximal treadmill and bicycle exercise.

Oxygen uptake during maximal treadmill and bicycle exercise.