PROVO, Utah (U-WIRE) — The 2002 Games are providing a unique opportunity to mix science and sport.
A research team from the Orthopedic Specialty Hospital is assisting eight other teams that are studying Olympic athletes, hoping to improve athletes’ performances at future competitions.
“The Olympics provide the perfect opportunity to study the best athletes in the world at their peak performance levels,” said Dr. Nana Meyer, sports nutritionist researcher at the Orthopedic Specialty Hospital. “Data collected under these conditions allows researchers to improve subsequent performances for all levels of competitors.”
Intermountain Health Care and the Orthopedic Specialty Hospital are the official medical providers for the 2002 Olympics.
For six months, Meyer and Dr. Andy Subudhi have collected nutritional data for winter sports athletes, including speed skaters, biathletes, snowboarders, freestyle aerialists, bobsledders, skeleton sliders and luge racers.
The purpose of the study is to collect enough information to help the athletes improve, said Dr. Todd Allinger, biomechanist sports scientist at the Orthopedic Specialty Hospital
There is a gap between nutrition and athletes who compete in winter sports, Meyer said.
“We hope to narrow that gap and help these athletes increase their chances for success,” she said.
With the results of the nutritional preparation study, the researchers hope to create a nutrition manual for future winter sport athletes, Meyer said.
“We want to find out what the difference is between first and third in a particular event,” she said. “Is it body positioning, equipment setup, nutritional variation or hydration?”
Data is collected through questionnaires, video analysis and previously compiled information, such as athletes’ nutrition logs, she said.
Other research teams will record and analyze videotape of athletes to find a way to make up that extra one-hundredth of a second that could mean the gold at the next Winter Olympics.
“It’s imperative and extremely valuable that the information be gleaned during actual performance of the athlete,” said Craig Wing, director of the Orthopedic Specialty Hospital. “This gives our athletes the benefit of evaluating their performance in a game-time environment that is unlike any environment we could ever produce.”
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