Alrighty ya'll ready to read another one well here it is ( i don't think it mentions APOLo) talks about '04 Olympics:
Modern Olympians turn to technology for an extra edgeBy MERI-JO BORZILLERI THE GAZETTE
The U.S. Olympic Training Center is a Colorado Springs landmark. The complex occupies 35 acres on the site of the former Ent Air Force base, at the corner of Boulder Street and Union Boulevard. With 24 buildings, it is the workplace for more than 400 people, the home to about 200 resident-athletes and an occasional high-altitude training venue for many more. Olympic medals are the goal.
But what exactly do people do in those buildings?
To prepare for Athens, U.S. Olympic Training Center athletes might take a brief detour to Aruba.
They do it by visiting the center's Coaching and Sports Sciences laboratory at the U.S. Olympic Complex.
There, they bike or run while inhaling from a tube attached to a large cylinder of oxygen-rich, sea-level air.
The lab might not feel like Aruba. No sultry ocean breezes, no beach. But it breathes like it, which is what U.S. Olympic hopefuls are looking for at the Olympic Training Center.
“It's a huge benefit,” said Mari Holden, 2000 Olympic silver medalist in cycling's time trial.
Holden is among the scores of athletes seeking an edge by using the lab not only for testing, but for training.
The lab has a 3,500-squarefoot main room housing a dizzying array of testing machines, stationary bikes, video and computer screens.
For the jock scientist and any athlete trying to gain an edge, it's a little slice of heaven.
Athens is a sea-level city, but that's not the only reason athletes use the lab's special oxygen tanks.
Training at altitude — Colorado Springs is some 6,000 feet above sea level — has its advantages, among them forcing the cardiovascular system to be more efficient using oxygen in the thin air.
But the thin air also limits how hard an athlete can train. Muscles fatigue quicker at altitude. So athletes attempt a variety of high- and low-altitude training to produce optimum fitness.
Triathlete Hunter Kemper uses the lab for low-altitude training, saying he can run 10 seconds faster per mile with increased oxygen. The lab also helps Kemper monitor his blood and chart his progress.
“It's a huge mental boost to me to see myself getting stronger on paper,” said Kemper, who this year became the first U.S. triathlete to win a World Cup event. “I can translate that to a race environment.”
The lab is about more than just biomechanics and physiology. The sports science staff includes a nutritionist and sports psychologists.
Down the hall, engineers design and build sensors and other equipment to measure performance. A special plate on a bicycle pedal can measure the force a cyclist, such as Holden, applies when she pushes down.
Sensors inside a boxing heavy bag can tell how hard a boxer punches or a taekwondo athlete kicks and how many kicks it takes before fatigue diminishes power.
A laser can tell a pistol shooter if he or she is pulling the trigger too early or too late. Video analysis shows a figure skater's blade at the wrong angle before takeoff on a jump, or the reason for a curling stone's errant path.
A sensor attached to a rower's oar can provide computer data on how efficient the stroke is, where the oar's blade enters the water and who on the crew is slightly off rhythm.
All tiny things. But when the difference between an Olympic bronze medal and fourth place can be small fractions of a second, those small things loom large.
“We're probably the icing on the cake,” said Peter Davis, Coaching and Sports Sciences director, while taking a visitor on a tour of his division. “We try to give that extra 1 or 2 percent in improvement between a medal and not a medal, or making the team or not making the team.”
Sports science is located in the Sports Center I building, upstairs from the sports medicine clinic. The proximity makes sense, because the two divisions often team up.
While gymnast Jason Gatson underwent two lengthy rehabilitations from knee surgeries, sports science helped.
Scientists used an electrocardiogram to test the strength of muscles on Gatson's repaired leg. What they found was his other leg — the “good” one — wasn't keeping up with the rehabilitation. So coaches prescribed appropriate workouts.
Ron Brant, USA Gymnastics national men's program coordinator, is a video rat. He spends hours in the sports science room to pore over video. New computer programs allow coaches to break down performances of rival gymnasts and display them side-by-side with U.S. gymnasts for comparison.
“It really gives us a good chance to fine-tune going into Athens,” Brant said.
Davis, hired by the USOC after nine years with the renowned Australian Institute of Sport, said while U.S. Olympians are consistently among medal-count leaders, other nations are moving ahead in sports science with more funding and a philosophy of concentrating resources into relatively few sports.
Without the benefit of government money, the USOC's sports science department has a $3 million annual budget, mostly through corporate donations.
“We're not overly-competitive with the rest of the world,” Davis said. Other countries, like Australia, England and especially China are putting more money into their sports science programs.
“China's on another planet,” Davis said. “We have to raise our game.”
Of particular concern for the 2004 Olympics is the quality of Athens' notoriously polluted air. One wall of the lab contains a dozen or so colored posters, breaking down everything from Athens' particulate matter to the carbon monoxide levels of Athens air in August, comparable to Los Angeles.
“Coaches can't afford to guess,” Davis said.
WOW! These things are long, but informative for those that doesn't know about the OTC!
So, yeah maybe his dad takes care of Tiggie (love the name....wonder if it's related to Tiger??)LOL
