Towards gold,
with science and technology

Nothing like the Olympics to boast the learning of kinematics and dynamics in the dreaded Physics courses. All it takes is an exciting 100-meter sprint to finally understand the usefulness of studying uniformly accelerated rectilinear motion. Or the countless jumps seen in diving, Olympic gymnastics, and equestrian, for example, to thank the heavens for having learned to decompose movements! In fact, in-depth knowledge of fundamental mechanics can help gymnasts develop more complex routines in search of a 10. Sports such as rhythmic gymnastics, artistic gymnastics, synchronized swimming and diving use and abuse jumps, spins and pirouettes, with the restrictions imposed by angular momentum. Computational models of human body movement, based on the equations of motion and conservation of angular momentum, have been used as training aids. These simulations can help identify relatively simple movements that lead to richer, more complex jumps. Despite everyone calling for the motto that “the important thing is to compete”, no one goes to the Olympics to lose. In all modalities, advances are observed year after year, resulting from improvements in diets, training, muscular exercises, physiology, and other accessory advances in the athletes' lives. Despite this, progress in the performances achieved is very slow, and it is even believed that in some modalities the physical and physiological limit has already been reached. In these particular modalities, such as running and swimming, a few hundredths or thousandths of a second can make the difference between a gold and silver medal. It is clear that whenever accessories are used, such as rods, rackets, shoes, sails, oars, etc., constant improvements are sought in the materials and design of these accessories, to achieve better brands. With this, discreet but significant improvements are being achieved.

An interesting example is the 0,015 meter dash, where times have been steadily decreasing over the century, with rates of improvement of up to 0,006 seconds per year in the early XNUMXth century, but are now on the order of XNUMX seconds per year. or even less, showing that the physical limit is being reached. Certainly, a lot has changed in a century, including better timing, support for the start, shoes, nutrition and training for runners, just to name a few examples. But in this case, curiously, there is no moment in history that indicates a significant improvement in the athletes' performance, being a race essentially dominated by the ability of human beings to overcome their own limits.

The same no longer applies in the case of swimming or cycling, which in recent years have benefited from incredible technological improvements developed from highly sophisticated research. At the Sydney Olympics in 2000, some swimmers began using a suit that covered their entire body, to reduce the friction between their bodies and the water. Although this surface friction is relatively small compared to the other forces opposing the swimmer's movement in the water, it can cause delays of a few hundredths of a second, crucial for a medal or record. Some sportswear factories have developed these suits with tiny grooves that mimic sharks' dermal denticles, which are like tiny microscopic fins. These grooves create microscopic vortices in the water near the swimmer, making it difficult for water to flow along the swimmer's body, and therefore reducing friction. These clothes have also evolved. For example, the English manufacturer Speedo invested years in research to note that the texture of shark skin actually changes depending on the region of the body in order to couple the flow of water to the different shapes of its anatomy. This improvement was implemented, and is already present in the clothing called FastSkinII, and even varies depending on the swimmer's sex and the chosen swimming style. To develop this product and thereby reduce surface friction by around 4%, the manufacturer used modern computational fluid dynamics techniques and numerous tests with professional swimmers. American swimmer Michael Phelps wore the FSII suit at the Athens Olympics. If he had achieved the feat of obtaining seven gold medals, in addition to the medals he would have received a bonus of one million dollars from the English company. Was that why he was so upset about not achieving the feat?

In addition to basic science, necessary to understand some moves and characteristics of sports, technology is increasingly present in all sports. We cite some examples here, but unfortunately science and technology do not only improve positive aspects. The development of new drugs, difficult to detect in anti-doping tests, leads many athletes, coaches and managers eager for success to seek these anti-sporting solutions. In any case, the use of technology in sport, in its various variations, must always be limited by strict rules, to ensure that the competition always remains fair.

Top