science – FasterSkier

What Does the Climate Future Hold? Research Predicts Much Shorter Ski Seasons

Chelsea LittleJuly 24, 2017

“I think if you’re a nordic skier in New England, you should definitely be alarmed.” “That’s one of the main take-homes: skiing is not going to disappear completely, but it will generally be higher [in elevation].” So says Cameron Wobus, a Bowdoin ski team alumnus and a researcher at Abt Associates, a global research firm. Wobus and colleagues based in Boulder, Colo., and Washington, D.C., recently published a study in Global Environmental Change assessing the...

General Interviews Juniors Racing

Under 23 Questions with Claire Grall-Johnson

FasterSkierJanuary 30, 2017

In an effort to showcase the North Americans competing at this week’s International Ski Federation (FIS) 2017 USANA Nordic Junior World Championships and U23 Cross Country World Championships at Soldier Hollow in Midway, Utah, we asked those qualifying athletes several questions about themselves — actually, we had them fill in the blanks. Here we have 19-year-old Claire Grall-Johnson, of the Nakkertok Junior Development Team, who’s representing Canada at her first Junior Worlds. *** “My full name...

Biathlon General Juniors News Racing

Troubling Data: 1 in 5 Norwegian Junior Women Show Disordered Eating

Chelsea LittleSeptember 23, 2016

New research shows that nearly 20 percent of female junior skiers and biathletes in Norway display disordered eating, with the percentage even higher at elite sports high schools.

General News

If a Skier Falls in the Forest, Does the Sound Scare the Birds?

Chelsea LittleJuly 14, 2016

While we think of cross-country skiing as a low-impact sport which enjoys rather than exploits natural areas, research shows that even our small ski trails can impact wildlife through forest fragmentation and stress responses to disturbance by skiers.

General Health News Resources Training

Välbe’s Asthma Comments Off The Mark, Medical and Scientific Community Says

Chelsea LittleJanuary 29, 2016

A few things are clear: athletes, in particular winter endurance and pool athletes, have a high incidence of airway hyper-responsiveness, much of which may be undiagnosed. This can be treated with inhalers, which are not banned by WADA and have been repeatedly shown not to be performance-enhancing. And - those athletes can win.

General Juniors News Racing

Young Perfectionists are at Risk of Burnout, but Good Parenting Helps

Chelsea LittleOctober 5, 2015

Henrik Gustafsson, a psychology consultant to the Swedish Olympic Committee and its cross-country skiers, published new research showing that junior athletes who were perfectionists were at greater risk of burnout. The worst risk came when parents emphasized winning over having fun, feeding into these perfectionist tendencies.

General News

Female Skiers Accumulate Airway Injury and Cough During Race Season

Chelsea LittleSeptember 8, 2015

After finding that female cross-country skiers develop airway inflammation and a persistent cough which affects their sleep by the end of the season, Dr. Michael Kennedy explains why it's such a bigger problem for women: smaller lungs means that there's much more stress on their airways, which leads to greater injury in the winter months.

General News Racing

For Better-Feeling Marathons, Try Taking More Feeds

Chelsea LittleSeptember 2, 2015

A recent study found that taking more frequent feeds - six over the course of a 30 k rollerski time trial - helped maintain higher and more consistent blood sugar levels and minimized gastrointestinal discomfort, even if it didn't necessarily improve performance times. "Get to know what works best for you," recommended researcher Ben Stocks.

General Interviews News

The Mind Makes a Winner: An Interview with Emotional Intelligence Researcher Sylvain Laborde

Chelsea LittleAugust 27, 2015

Dr. Sylvain Laborde of the German Sports University is researching how to develop emotional intelligence training specifically for athletes. "They understood after the first session that they could really get something out of this," Laborde said of working with an initially reluctant rugby team.

General News

All About Emotional Intelligence and How It Boosts Sports Performance

Chelsea LittleJuly 6, 2015

Emotional intelligence - how one perceives, understands, and manages emotions - can give athletes better coping strategies, more motivation, and the potential to be a team leader. Even on the recreational side of things, emotional intelligence is associated with the difference between inactivity and a healthy engagement with exercise. The good news is, you can train it.

General News Racing World Cup

Is Cross-Country Skiing Predictable?

Chelsea LittleJune 25, 2015

A study published in December says yes - in fact, the authors write that the correlations of results from one World Cup to the next is more predictable than in any other sport they looked at.

General News

Fast Start Wins the Race? Increasing Effort, Not Pace, is Key

Chelsea LittleMay 28, 2015

New research shows that in long ski races, an athlete's speed slows slightly lap by lap, but heart rate and other physiological indicators increase as the effort takes its toll. This typical pacing strategy appears superior to starting slow and drastically increasing speed later in the race. We tested a case study using data from 2015 World Championships.

General News

WADA Sets Priorities for $12 Million Research Pot: Using Chemistry and Omics to Study Doping

Chelsea LittleMay 22, 2015

With $5.9 in pledges from 12 different countries and matching funds from the IOC, the World Anti-Doping Agency is kicking off their next research push. Among the priorities are learning how to use sophisticated genomic techniques to detect autologous blood transfusions. What the heck does that mean? Read on.

General News

Skiathlon Explained: Physiological Differences from Classic to Make Transition Tough

Chelsea LittleOctober 7, 20145

You know that moment after the transition in a skiathlon, when your skis seem to be sliding all over the place and your arms and legs say, "what!?" A team of researchers, including former Gustavus Adolphus skier Sarah Willis, investigated what's going on physiologically.

General Interviews Juniors News Racing

This Month in Journals: Does Birthdate Matter in Winning, or Staying In, Youth Sports?

Chelsea LittleAugust 15, 20147

In the 2013 World Junior Championships sprint, half of the male competitors in the final were born in the last five months of the eligibility window. Is this a case of a relative age effect - and what are the implications for elite sports on the whole, or retaining youngsters to be recreational athletes for life?

General News

This Month in Journals: Detecting Xenon Gas, A New Banned Substance – and Why You’d Want To

Chelsea LittleJune 24, 2014

Regardless of whether breathing xenon gas was a prohibited method before WADA bothered to expressly ban it this spring, it would be hard to ban anyone for using it without direct evidence or a positive test. One group of German scientists has been working on developing just such a test, and says that their initial trials indicate that it may be a good match for anti-doping efforts.

General Interviews News

How Your Sports Psychology Research Gets Done: Based on Days Spent Ski Racing

Chelsea LittleJune 16, 2014

Dr. Blair Evans, whose work on group dynamics and competitive suffering (i.e. failure) we've highlighted twice in "This Month in Journals", chats about the process of doing sports psychology research. Evans' experience skiing in college informs almost all of his research, and he told us what he thinks makes skiing special from a psychological standpoint.

General News Racing

This Month in Journals: How We Suffer

Chelsea LittleMay 30, 2014

Did you know that “competitive suffering” is a thing, a real phenomenon with a definition and scientists studying it? That’s right, when you’re failing and get discouraged in the middle of a race (perhaps, like Alex Harvey at the Olympics, because your skis don't work), someone wants to ask you how you feel about it. This is what they've found out.

General News

This Month In Journals: Acetominophen, Huffing O2, and the Difference between Men and Women

Chelsea LittleApril 29, 20148

In April, researchers got into a fight about whether Tylenol should be banned by WADA; looked at the effects of breathing pure oxygen between laps in a team sprint; considered the difference in fatiguability between male and female athletes; and checked whether you should be mixing up your strength training with sprints (hint: you should).

General News

This Winter in Journals, Part Two: Skis and Boots, Injuries and Eating

Chelsea LittleApril 21, 20141

This winter, researchers built a rollerski with strain gauges to measure force application and work on technique; studied the microclimate inside your ski boots; put out a consensus statement about overuse injuries in young athletes; and studied the female athlete triad, an energy deficiency syndrome which can lead to bone loss.

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