When Canada won the right to host the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games, governments and sports federations decided to do everything possible to win gold. Previous Olympic Games hosted in Canada (Montreal 1976 and Calgary 1988) had not yielded gold medals, but this time would be different.
Own the Podium (OTP) was created to give Canadian athletes the resources and the scientific support they would need to win more medals than any other nations. Top secret projects were undertaken to give Canadian athletes the best equipment and the best technologically advanced training techniques, and many of these projects were focused on reducing friction so that our athletes could slide, snowboard or curl better than their competitors.
If you were a physicist, you would see friction as the force that resists the motion between two elements in contact; however, if you were a winterOlympian, you would view friction as something that could keep you from a gold medal.
To win snowboard gold, your equipment has to be perfect for the conditions. As the snowboard descends the hill, friction creates just enough heat to produce a small amount of water that acts as a buffer (lubricating layer) between the board and the snow. The right amount of water reduces the friction between the two surfaces, creating an effect similar to “hydroplaning”. When the water is acting as a lubricant between the surface of the snowboard and the snow, it is exhibiting “wet friction”. However, too much water will create suction known as “wet drag”. In warmer conditions, such as those often found on Canada’s West Coast, the objective is to repel the water in order to reduce “wet drag.” The surface of the board and the wax the snowboarder uses determine whether the board will glide over or stick to the wet snow.“We started having discussions in the fall of 2006 to develop a new base material for our snowboards that would be the best for the conditions,” recalls Robert Joncas, Director of High Performance at Canada~Snowboard.
“Christos Stamboulides, a PhD student at UBC, told us that he could create a special plastic base that contained additives that would repel water.”
“The plastic used for the base of skis and snowboards already have low coefficient friction,” explains Stamboulides. “I experimented in the lab, mixing up to ten different additives to these plastics to make them repel more water (hydrophobic). If you have a surface that repels water, then you will be slipping more and the boards will go faster.”
As the race day temperatures rose, Joncas and the team knew that they had the fastest snowboards on the mountain. Gold and silver medals by Jasey Jay Anderson, Maëlle Ricker and Mike Robertson proved that the investment was worthwhile.
BETTER TECHNIQUE FOR CANADIAN LUGERS
“In today’s sport world, if you think you can do it without the scientific background, you are living in la-la land,” emphasizes Canadian luge coach Wolfgang Staudinger. “The human eye is not good enough to see the details of what is happening.”
When OTP funded a biomechanical analysis of the luge team, some glaring problems with their technique became obvious. As the athletes were pushing off at the start, the cameras picked up a slight kick with their legs. The force was being transferred vertically instead of horizontally, meaning that the front of their sleds was going up into the air and not down the track. It was like they were doing a ‘wheelie’ with their luge sleds. While this gave them the perception of going faster, in effect it just dug their sleds into the ice at the back and increased friction with the ice.
By changing their technique, they were able to ensure that friction was reducedand force was exerted horizontally. This made for faster starts.
A key to the success of sliding sports such as bobsleigh, skeleton or luge is overcoming friction while managing the punishing G-forces that result from rocketing around tight corners. For the luge, this means constantly adjusting the sled’s steels (metal runners that make contact with the icy track) to balance the dual needs of reduced friction and control through the corners. OTP invested in the design of the luge steels, experimenting with various types of metals that can be hardened to lower the friction on the icy track and shave the fractions of a second that can separate first from fifth.
Friction plays a very different role in the sport of curling. Sweepers control the speed of the thrown rock as it glides down the sheet of ice. By sweeping hard, the rock goes faster so that the curlers can knock out an opponent’s rock or put down a guard.For a long time, it was felt that the curler’s sweeping was melting the surface of the ice, and that a thin layer of water was what kept the rock’s momentum. But Thomas Jenkyn, an orthopaedic biomechanist at the University of Western Ontario, used infrared cameras to discover what actually happens to the ice under the curlers’ brooms. He found that the vigorous sweeping was elevating the surface temperature of the ice from -5C to -3C. This slight increase in temperature was sufficient to decrease friction by softening the surface.
“If you are going to redesign a broom head to be more effective, then you need to know what is happening to the ice,” Jenkyn explains. “The people who felt that the sweeping melted the ice were designing the broom for wet friction. We designed a broom that was based on dry friction and that bounced the heat photons back into the ice and not into the broom head.”The best part was that the new broom design was a complete secret. When Canadian curlers used the high tech broom head, they could drag the rock another three feet with none of their competitors being any wiser.
THE SPORT SCIENCE DEBATE
Not everyone feels that investing in top secret sport science projects is fair. It gives richer or technologically advanced countries an advantage that others might not have. However, Canada has made a decision to support its athletes in their efforts to win medals. This means that those who represent our country must have the support that is needed to make them competitive. When Canada won more gold medals than any other country at an Olympic Winter Games, it showed that science mixed with hard training and good coaching gets great results.
1. Pick a sport researched by OTP, and explain the impact of uniform and equipment on performance. Explain the relation of uniform and equipment to physics.
2. Propose an area of research for a summer Olympic Sport, and explain how physics relates to this sport and research how science is helping athletes perform better.
3. Read “How Luge Works” and “The Physics of Bobsledding” on www.olympic.ca/education//library under Friction and Winter Sport in the Research Centre and explain the determining factors for speed in luge, bobsleigh and skeleton.
Consider extending the case study by adding a research component.
1. Research how the clap skate works and the effects that it had on the sport of Speed Skating.
2. Choose a piece of sporting equipment and describe how science has influenced its construction. Suggest areas where future research could revolutionize this sporting equipment.
3. How is Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) technology used to improve sport performance?
4. How do innovations in sport equipment for elite athletes benefit recreational athletes?
Incorporate writing skills by having the students write a persuasive paragraph that argues for or against these statements.
1. Is it fair to use science to improve performance or should all competitors have to compete with the same equipment and clothing?
2. Should Canada continue to invest in Own the Podium’s Top Secret Project?
The following case project is lengthier, but will allow your students to examine the topic in more depth.
As a leading scientist working for OTP, suggest a sport where technology and scientific innovation could help Canada win medals at the London 2012 Olympic Games. Through research about the sport, determine what types of projects could be funded to help Canadian athletes perform in this sport.