What is the "Winter Olympic Games Lab" doing?

With over a year left before the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, in Changchun City of Jilin Province, reporters visited the winter sports lab at Northeast Normal University, to investigate how it uses technological means to assist winter sports.

Inside, reporters find an athlete who is undergoing physical functions testing. The test-taker wears portable cardio-pulmonary function test instrument, cycles at a specific cycle ergometer, and the staff can use the data displayed on the screen to read the maximum oxygen uptake, blood lactic acid, cycling rate, and other indexes of the athlete.

"This is the 'Winter Olympics project lab'," said Liu Junyi, lab manager at the Northeast Normal University facility. The lab was established in 2015 with 6 experimental sites, 24 various laboratories, and over 500 experimental apparatuses and equipment. It has provided physique evaluation, skill evaluation, technological analysis, rehabilitation and recovery services to over 1,000 athletes nationwide. At present, the lab is launching three technological research and development projects for the Winter Olympics Games, including "Special ability characteristics of winter sports athletes and key technology for scientific selection."

In the lab, there are many similar equipment and training systems. "The simulation skiing machine is a training aid to land alpine skiing and snowboarding. This is the dynamic treadmill training system. This is a neuromuscular rehabilitation training system specifically designed for winter sports athletes..." Liu introduces each.

The lab is being described as a "clinic", a "gas station", and a "resort" for athletes.

It acts as a “clinic" as it provides diagnoses of athletes’ techniques and tactics, and their competitive conditions. Using data evaluation, it analyzes the competitive level and physical conditions of athletes. It is a “gas station" as it helps to provide facilitating training methods and stamina reserve for athletes, to help them achieve a better competitive state. It is also a "resort" to help athletes relax their minds and bodies, to adjust their conditions, and to better prepare them for the races.

As introduced, the lab has designed and developed U-shaped speed skating on land special simulation trainer and snowboarding parallel giant slalom on land training aid system. It is currently doing research on new models of drag reduction skates and helmets. "These new achievements will help athletes improve their performances, and provide new thinking, new materials, and new methods for research and development of our nation's high-tech winter sports equipment," Liu states that the lab is also providing scientific research services for the national team and the team of athletes in training to help them prepare for the Winter Olympic Games', in speed skating, short-track speed skating, cross-country skiing, freestyle skiing diving tower and slope surface obstacle skills, and parallel giant slalom for snowboarding.

Translated by Zhang Junye