Reprinted from the University of Canterbury’s “Chronicle”
When cyclist Sarah Ulmer said after the Olympic Games that her Olympic success was a victory for all those who had helped her prepare for the Athens Games, she was referring to people like the mechanical engineering and sport science experts at the University of Canterbury.
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| Sarah Ulmer is put through her paces in the University’s wind tunnel. Click here to view a larger version |
She is one of 52 New Zealand athletes who worked with UC during their build-up to the games.
Alan Tucker, Graeme Harris and Eric Cox (Mechanical Engineering) and Biomechanist Jane Simpson worked with Ulmer to enhance the aerodynamics of her purpose-built bike, helmets and skin suits.
For the first time, the cyclist was able to ride her bike inside a wind tunnel. Until then, most wind tunnel testing had been done with the cyclist in a static position.
Sport Science Director Paul Carpinter says he had high hopes for Ulmer and is delighted by her success.
“It just gives you one of those warm moments that you have from time to time that a number of University staff will experience when a programme that they’ve been involved with achieves an outstanding result.”
He says Ulmer’s success will have positive spin-offs for Canterbury University.
“The relationship we have with the New Zealand Academy of Sport can develop even further now. I think the academy’s programmes in the future will continue to acknowledge the University as a key provider and an institution where there’s significant expertise and skills.”
Another athlete whose pre-games work at UC paid dividends is hockey player Hayden Shaw.
For two-and-a-half years he and Jane Simpson worked on improving the speed and accuracy of his drag flick – one of hockey’s lethal scoring weapons.
By the time he left for the games he was consistently flicking the ball at speeds of more than 32 metres per second.
A match in which he scored two goals from three attempts prompted one sports journalist to describe his drag flick from the penalty corner as “deadly”.
Two weeks after competition for New Zealand’s able-bodied Olympians finished, it started for athletes competing in the Paralympics in Athens.
Many of these athletes, including the Wheel Blacks rugby team and numerous track and field athletes and swimmers, have also spent time training at UC.
This has included heat acclimatisation sessions during which they exercised in temperatures exceeding 30degC to help them prepare for competing in the heat of the Northern Hemisphere summer.
Paul Carpinter says these sessions were crucial as many of the paralympians’ bodies have damaged thermal control mechanisms.
Once the Paralympics are over, it will then be back to the drawing board for the sport scientists.
So how soon will it be before they have to start thinking about the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in two years time?
Immediately, says Paul Carpinter.
With respect to New Zealand cycling the next two years’ planning programme is already in place and some of the support staff and some of the areas of activity have already been identified, he says.
The build-up to the next Olympic Games in 2008 will not begin quite so soon. But it was only six to nine months after the Sydney Olympics that planning for this year’s games began – it won’t be too long before the path to Olympic glory leads many of New Zealand’s top athletes back to the UC campus.
