Do skin suits increase average skating speed?

We analyze the effectiveness of speedskating suits to increase average skating speed at the 2002 Olympic winter games of Salt Lake City. We model the average skating speed of male and female speed skaters at distances from 500 to 10000 meters. Speed not only depends on physical characteristics of the skaters, but also on previous performance and speedskating suits that reduce drag. We find that one specific suit, the so-called Swift Skin suit, significantly increases average skating speed, especially in long-distance events. This suits increase speed by up to 0.2-0.3 seconds per lap on a 400-meter oval. The effects are more pronounced for men than for women and show up in the first part of the race.

Bidding for Sport Mega-Events

Sport mega-events such as the Olympic Games and FIFA World Cup, or on a smaller scale the Commonwealth Games or regional events, attract competing bids from nations or cities. These bids are mostly made at tax-payers? expense and spending is often large and non-transparent. Our paper addresses the question of why large sums of public money are spent in an attempt to secure uncertain rights to host events which, according to ex post studies, often yield few gains. The paper analyses the economics of the bidding process, emphasising public choice aspects of mega-event bidding to identify the interaction of potential beneficiaries and policymakers' interests. We do not directly enter debates about legacies of hosting mega-events, but ask why public money is spent on a bidding process which is even less likely to realize net social benefits. The empirical part of the paper uses past bids from the state of South Australia, a demonstrated bidder for various sports mega (or not so mega-) events with a mixed record of success, as a case study of the economics of bidding.bidding, sports

The Olympic Movement and Information Society : New Internet Challenges and Opportunities

Article describing the current situation of the Internet, the use of Internet by sport institutions, and the relationship between the Internet and the Olympic Games, and the Olympic Movement. This paper was presented at the International Symposium on Television in the Olympic Games held in Lausanne in October 1998.El artículo describe la situación actual de Internet, su uso por las instituciones deportivas y la relación entre Internet, los Juegos Olímpicos y el Movimiento Olímpico. Esta ponencia fue presentada en el simposio internacional sobre televisión y Juegos Olímpicos celebrado en Lausana en octubre de 1998.L'article descriu la situació actual d'Internet, el seu ús per part de les institucions esportives i la relació entre Internet, els Jocs Olímpics i el Moviment Olímpic. Aquesta ponència va ser presentada en el simposi internacional sobre televisió i Jocs Olímpics celebrat a Lausanna a l'octubre de 1998

Going for the Gold: The Economics of the Olympics

In this paper, we explore the costs and benefits of hosting the Olympic Games. On the cost side, there are three major categories: general infrastructure such as transportation and housing to accommodate athletes and fans; specific sports infrastructure required for competition venues; and operational costs, including general administration as well as the opening and closing ceremony and security. Three major categories of benefits also exist: the short-run benefits of tourist spending during the Games; the long-run benefits or the Olympic legacy which might include improvements in infrastructure and increased trade, foreign investment, or tourism after the Games; and intangible benefits such as the feel-good effect or civic pride. Each of these costs and benefits will be addressed in turn, but the overwhelming conclusion is that in most cases the Olympics are a money-losing proposition for host cities; they result in positive net benefits only under very specific and unusual circumstances. Furthermore, the cost–benefit proposition is worse for cities in developing countries than for those in the industrialized world. In closing, we discuss why what looks like an increasingly poor investment decision on the part of cities still receives significant bidding interest and whether changes in the bidding process of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will improve outcomes for potential hosts

Going for the Gold: The Economics of the Olympics

In this paper, we explore the costs and benefits of hosting the Olympic Games. On the cost side, there are three major categories: general infrastructure such as transportation and housing to accommodate athletes and fans; specific sports infrastructure required for competition venues; and operational costs, including general administration as well as the opening and closing ceremony and security. Three major categories of benefits also exist: the short-run benefits of tourist spending during the Games; the long-run benefits or the Olympic legacy which might include improvements in infrastructure and increased trade, foreign investment, or tourism after the Games; and intangible benefits such as the feel-good effect or civic pride. Each of these costs and benefits will be addressed in turn, but the overwhelming conclusion is that in most cases the Olympics are a money-losing proposition for host cities; they result in positive net benefits only under very specific and unusual circumstances. Furthermore, the cost-benefit proposition is worse for cities in developing countries than for those in the industrialized world. In closing, we discuss why what looks like an increasingly poor investment decision on the part of cities still receives significant bidding interest and whether changes in the bidding process of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will improve outcomes for potential hosts

Dissecting action sports studies: Past, present, and beyond

The term “action sports” broadly refers to a wide range of mostly individualized activities such as BMX, kite-surfing, skateboarding, surfing, and snowboarding that differed – at least in their early phases of development – from traditional rule-bound, competitive, regulated Western “achievement” sport cultures ( Booth and Thorpe, 2007 ; Kusz, 2007a ; Wheaton 2004, 2010 ). Various categorizations have been used to describe these activities, including extreme, lifestyle, and alternative sports. In this chapter, however, the term action sports is used as it is currently the preferred term among committed participants and industry members in North America and Australasia (many of whom reject the overly commercialized “extreme” moniker imposed upon them by transnational media and mainstream sponsors during the mid- and late 1990s). Many action sports gained popularity during the new leisure trends of the 1960s and 1970s and increasingly attracted alternative youth, who appropriated these activities and infused them with a set of hedonistic and carefree philosophies and subcultural styles ( Booth and Thorpe, 2007 ; Thorpe and Wheaton, 2011a ; Wheaton, 2010 )

La participació ciutadana en els Jocs Olímpics

Aquest text presenta les oportunitats de participació indirecta dels individus en els Jocs Olímpics, un esdeveniment esportiu únic basat no només en ideals específics, sinó que també continua un moviment i preveu la participació de diferents grups de persones.Este texto presenta las oportunidades de participación indirecta de los individuos en los Juegos Olímpicos, un evento deportivo único basado no sólo en ideales específicos, sino que también continúa un movimiento y prevé la participación de distintos grupos de personas.This paper presents the opportunities of the indirect participation of individuals in the Olympic Games; a unique athletic event based not only on specific ideals, but it also carries on a movement and foresees the participation of different groups of people

BIOMECHANICS AND ADAPTED PHYSICAL ACTIVITY

Several examples of biomechanical research work on Adapted Physical Activity are presented in this paper. In many cases, the same biomechanical analyses used in general sports activities can be applied to disability-based sports, as well. The methodology and the knowledge of biomechanics are expected to contribute to the development of competitive sports for the disabled, especially in the following aspects in the future: (1) to analyze certain sports skills and to advise athletes how to improve their skill levels (2) to develop and amend sports equipment and apparatus based on the motion analysis (3) to support competitors in training to improve their physical fitness levels (4) to advise and support for the functional classification of the athlete

This Sporting Life: Sports and Body Culture in Modern Japan

Yale CEAS Occasional Publication Series - Volume 1 Sports in Japan have long been embedded in community life, the educational system, the mass media, the corporate structures, and the nationalist sentiments of modern Japan. For over a century, they have been a crucial intersection of school pedagogy, corporate aims, media constructions, gender relations, and patriotic feelings. The chapters in this book highlight a wide range of sports, and together, they offer a significant window on to the ways that the sporting life animates the institutions of modern Japan.https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/ceas_publication_series/1000/thumbnail.jp

Faster, Higher, "Softly" Stronger : The Impact of Soft Power on the Choice of Olympic Host Cities

An outline of this paper was presented at the 20th European Association for Sport Management Conference in Aalborg, Denmark, September 18-21, 2012.This article statistically estimates the impact of different countries soft power on the results of Olympic Games bidding in the post-Cold War era. All bid results for the Olympic Summer and Winter Games between 1990 and 2011 are analyzed by panel regression methods. The empirical results reveal that sporting success, higher transparency, lower CO2 and particle emissions, and faster economic growth are likely to increase the probability of a bidding country winning an Olympic bid. These results have several implications regarding the impact of soft power on choice of Olympic host site. First, if a country has a high number of Olympic gold medalists, this could attract International Olympic Committee (IOC) members and influence their decisions. Second, a countrys ethical reputation is likely to persuade the IOC to choose it as the rightful host country. Third, the environmental record of a country may also be regarded as a desirable value by IOC members, who prefer a Green Games ecological legacy