By Professor Edward Winter Introduction During the recent Rio Olympics, I was struck by the number of times commentators used the terms “power” and “powerful”. Examples were, “That was a powerful performance”, “What a powerful run!”, “What power she displayed”. Moreover, in my latest issue of Squash Player, there was a prominent advertisement from a […]
After a sensational summer of Sport it is time to reflect on the spectacular successes of the British Olympic and Paralympic teams. Both squads finished second in the medal table (behind the U.S.A and China) but how do they compare to each other? The Centre for Sports Engineering Research at Sheffield Hallam University in collaboration […]
Like Chris Froome in an unconventional riding position, the Summer seems to have flown by (I’m an engineer, similes do not come easily). Thankfully there’s been a bumper crop of sporting spectacles to sate our appetites. In this post I’d like to focus on a pet topic of mine, cycling aerodynamics. Right at the start […]
The marathon event, is the longest running event held at the Olympic Games, where competitors race over a distance of 42.195 km (26.219 miles) on a set road course. The marathon distance became standardised in 1921 but a version of the marathon event was held at the first modern Olympic Games in 1896. The women’s marathon […]
Datasheets in the shot put have now been produced and have highlighted some interesting trends in both the men’s and women’s event. Check out the shot put datasheets here: The shot put is one of the simplest athletic field events, dominated by the impulse that an athlete can produce. The aim of the shot put it […]
The modern pole vault (i.e. that which we see in the Olympics) is a competition based on vertical height. Competitors use a pole (between 3 to 5 metres long) to clear a bar set at a specified height. The competitor that is able to clear the greatest height is the winner. Historically, pole vaulting was used to […]
Following on from the insights we found in the in the 100 metres datasheets we moved our attention another athletic event, the javelin. The javelin is perhaps the closest modern sporting event linked to ancient human warfare and a full explanation and history of the event can be found here in our blog article. So […]
