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Category Archives
July 19, 2005
Posted by Nick
The Chinese government is geeting more involved in athletics and the use of supplements and the role played by dieticians:
China’s rising profile on the world’s sports stage and its determination to lay past drug scandals to rest means that the authorities are now taking a growing interest in – and control of – the sports supplement market. The State Administration of Physical Culture and Sports has now decreed that all traditional Chinese medicines must be tested for stimulants before athletes on local and national teams can use them. Furthermore, the State General Administration of Sports recently launched a key scientific project whose aim is to develop a system of dietary nutrients designed to enhance recovery and support the training loads of elite athletes. This system was employed to prepare Chinese athletes for the 2004 Athens Olympic Games – with apparent success.
With the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games looming, great emphasis is also being placed on the training of dieticians. And there is a simultaneous drive by the State Drug and Food Administration to tighten up on supplement manufacturing practices in order to reduce the risk of contamination. Only recently, one major Chinese supplement manufacturer was investigated by the Agricultural Products Quality Supervision Centre at the Ministry of Agriculture for the quality of its calcium supplements, which apparently contained significant amounts of toxic hydrogen peroxide. This case gained notoriety, because in China calcium tablets are a popular gift!
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+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Olympics
August 14, 2004
Posted by Nick
I'm off on vacation for a bit, so enjoy the Olympics. The opening ceremonies were tremendous. (Altho what's up with the joint they're using as the Olympic flame holder? Not helping the anti-doping message if you ask me.) And it was especially great to see so much Greek Greekiness. I live in the Greek area of NYC, so I have a lot of Greek pride (yes, the notion of Greek pride is redundant).
Anyway, make sure you read this piece by Ilya Shapiro on the true Olympic spirit. It will surprise you.
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August 04, 2004
Posted by Nick
Here is an odd little story, but includes an interesting tidbit on the javelin:
the official javelins had to be redesigned about 20 years ago because they were flying too far. Improvements since then have pushed distances back up, and another redesign may be needed in a few years.
This conjures up images of the nerds competing in the movie "Revenge of the Nerds" when Lamar won the javelin competition over the jocks (How can the weak and effeminate Lamar throw a javelin further than a muscle-bound football player? -- by aerodynamically coordinating the instrument to his limp-wristed throwing style, of course). But it also raises a question? How far is too far? Were they able to keep it on the field? I'm curious what prompted it.
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+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Olympics
Posted by Nick
Remarkable interview with Edwin Moses, the great hurdler, who is planning a comeback:
Would you have been as good an athlete without science?
Not at all. I didn't get an athletics scholarship at a major school. I went to a small private school that was highly academic, and that was a major reason I became the athlete I did. I wasn't under pressure to perform. I did it because I loved the sport and wanted to be involved in it. I'm sure I wouldn't have been an Olympic champion if I had gone to any other school. It was all about the academic environment there.
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August 02, 2004
Posted by Nick
Ever wonder what it would be like to compete against Sergei Bubka in pole vault? Today's American olympic athletes are doing that in their training:
CHULA VISTA, Calif. - As often as he likes, American pole vault star Toby Stevenson competes against Sergey Bubka, his idol and world record holder.
In tandem, they race down the runway and fling themselves over bars more than 19 feet above the ground.
That's some Olympian feat, considering that Bubka is retired.
Actually, these head-to-head duels play out on a computer screen, superimposed in digital video overlay. It's part of the latest way USA Track and Field is preparing its runners, jumpers and throwers for Athens.
Since October, USATF has been using a software program called Dartfish to help athletes evaluate their performance through real-time digital video analysis.
..."It's a big reason for my success," Stevenson said. "I jump, and between every jump I watch my jump, and after practice I watch every jump on Dartfish."
Stevenson can look at a jump in real time, quarter time, half time or frame-by-frame. He can compare up to four different jumps at once, or have two jumps overlaid to see how consistent he is.
Or he can vault versus Bubka. The technicians who run the DV program converted analog video of Bubka to digital with a few extra steps outside of Dartfish, which grew out of a Swiss company in 1998 with early success in ski racing broadcasting.
"Obviously it's not Dartfish alone, but yeah, I increased my PR (personal record) 10 inches this year," Stevenson said. "I've got the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 jumps in the world right now."
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April 22, 2004
Posted by Nick
There are tons of interesting gear developments being pushed by American companies in the run-up to Athens.
In developing its products, Nike researchers have studied a range of problems from how to keep body temperatures cooler for a longer period of time during competition to whether a swimmer can move faster through water by shaving body hair or wearing a full-body suit. The answer, Nike said, is wearing a suit.
... Even the placement of a seam can make a difference, said Jordan Wand, global director for Nike's Advanced Innovation Team. Seams can add resistance if they are placed in the path of air flow over an athlete's body, he said. By moving a runner's shirt seam to the back from the shoulder, for example, designers can reduce that effect, he said.
There's also a psychological component to designing racing wear, said Todd Van Horne, Nike's Olympics creative director for apparel. Athletes not only aim to be fast, but they also want to look fast to competitors. So in some cases, Nike applied a thick racing stripe to racing outfits. "This really is the art of speed," he said.
... Adidas is rolling out its own slate of products, from a new version of its full-body swimming suit to new sprint shoes. With Athens' hot and humid weather in mind, the company also has fabricated its footwear and apparel using "ClimaCool" technology, which the company says will help athletes keep cool. Aside from showing off its new products, Adidas will enjoy the special status of being the U.S. Olympics team's official footwear and apparel supplier.
The modern Olympic games bring to mind the old Crystal Palace technology expos that were designed to increase awareness and enthusiasm for technology and the marvels of the industrial age.
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January 26, 2004
Posted by Nick
The NY Times has a piece on its sports page that really should have received Page 1 treatment. It's out of the Leon-Kass's-worst-nightmares bedside notebook.
Andreas Krieger opened a shopping bag in his living room and spilled out his past: track and field uniforms, a scrapbook and athlete credentials from the former East Germany.
The photos on the credentials looked familiar, but the face was fuller and softer, the hair covering the ears and draping down the neck. This was Heidi Krieger, the 1986 European women's shot-put champion, perhaps the most extreme example of the effects of an insidious, state-sponsored system of doping in East Germany.
The taking of pills and injections of anabolic steroids created virile features and heightened confusion about an already uncertain sexual identity, Krieger said, influencing a decision to have a sex-change operation in 1997 and to become known legally as Andreas.
Ah, East Germany and the Cold War -- the good old days. There's a funny scene in the movie "Top Secret" (with Val Kilmer as "Neek Reevers") where members of the East German women's olympic team parade by and they're all pumped up and have mustaches and beards and all look like dudes. After reading this story, it's not as funny. Now it's too real to be good satire.
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