KEARNS ? If you thought the "speed" in speedskating was all about bulging quadriceps and big hearts, think again.
There's a lot of smart people doing a lot of thinking about the sport these days. The results have yielded scientific innovations in body suits, the single-hinge clap skate and better ways to make a 400-meter sheet of ice.
And more is on the way.
Researchers are developing a double-hinge skate that the University of Amsterdam's Jos de Koning predicts will be used in the 2006 Olympics. And a programmable computer chip that prevents a hinged skate from snapping off the start line, resulting in quicker 100- and 200-meter times during sprints, could also be used by skaters in the next Games, says Carl Foster, director of the Human Performance Lab at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
Joining Foster and de Koning in helping speedskaters go faster are Darren Stefanyshyn, assistant professor of biomechanics at the University of Calgary, and Andrew Subudhi, an exercise physiologist at the Orthopedic Specialty Hospital (TOSH). They're all part of a Pfizer/International Olympic Committee-sponsored research consortium studying health, biomechanics and nutrition.
While lots of carbohydrates and fluids are encouraged for peak performance, Subudhi is working with individual athletes to determine specific dietary needs. What works for one might not bode well for another. American long-track skater Derek Parra, for example, eats a package of Fig Newtons the night before every race.
"It's not necessarily that there's a secret food out there," Subudhi said. "There's no secret food."
Though high-tech, friction-reducing body suits for countries like Canada, the United States, Netherlands, Norway and Australia are developed in secret, the jury is still out on whether the science in the suit equals more speed.
"If the suits works, nobody knows," said de Koning.
Meanwhile, Stefanyshyn is working with athletes on the best place to locate the hinge on the clap skate, which burst on the scene at the 1998 Nagano Olympics and has been credited with helping fell world records.
There is a science to human movement, and de Koning, with the aid of eight cameras inside the Utah Olympic Oval that help him isolate changes in a skater's velocity every 50 meters, looks at differences in body position and studies the aerodynamic characteristics of a skater.
Three of the biggest innovations to help skaters go faster, Foster said, have been covered ovals, the first of which was built in Calgary, the clap skate and the Utah Olympic Oval. As the highest indoor ice sheet in the world at 4,675 feet above sea level, the reduced air resistance inside the Kearns oval lends itself to faster times. Still, despite all the studies in biomechanics and pacing, interest in aerobic and anaerobic training or research into the special needs of the female athlete or the winter athlete, the key to peak performance sometimes comes down to simply listening to coaches.
These are the folks who have the not-so-scientific ability to help their charges avoid injury and skate their best, with advice as seemingly elementary as knowing when to train hard and when to start saving their strength for the big race, like maybe the Olympics.
E-MAIL: sspeckman@desnews.com