Health & Medicine︱Kjell Hausken the Winter Olympics offer athletes Professor Hausken carried a narrower choice of category. This out careful investigation of the physiological means that athletes with certain implications of five Winter physiological characteristics – those Olympic events, including that mean they are better suited to the ability to store glycogen (pictured). Understanding short sprint events, or endurance, for example – have greater opportunities to compete, and to win, in their chosen sport. For example, an athlete physiology could give who is physiologically suited to short sprints is currently unlikely to find success in cross-country skiing, and an athlete suited for endurance more athletes a chance is unlikely to find success in speed skating. With this in mind, re- assessing the range of events on offer could potentially allow more athletes of Olympic glory to compete, as well as improving the experience for spectators.

The Winter Olympics include hile the Winter Olympics over the last century. Within each POWER AND SPEED IN MarynaOlyak/Shutterstock.com many exciting and demanding may not have as high sport, the various entry categories SKIING AND SKATING sports – but, with fewer events W a profile as its Summer have been adjusted over time, not Recently, Professor Kjell Hausken of and categories available than counterpart, the featured events are least to include women’s events; in the University of Stavanger, Norway, in the Summer Olympics, there some of the most diverse and exciting 1924, women could only compete examined the different physiological are reduced opportunities for sports around. From bobsleigh and in figure skating. In addition, some requirements of five Winter Olympic athletes. Recently, Professor luge to figure skating, and from ski events have been altered to better Sports. These events – cross-country Kjell Hausken of the University jumping to ice hockey and speed suit a TV audience (with group rather skiing, biathlon, Nordic combined of Stavanger, Norway, looked skating, the 15 Winter Olympic than individual starts, for example). (cross country skiing and ski jumping), in detail at the physiological disciplines push athletes to their gold- These changes mean that the reasons speed skating and short-track speed

demands of five Winter medal-winning limits. behind including or excluding certain skating – all require an activity of Commons Wikimedia via , Olympic sports. As a result, events or categories have sometimes mechanical propulsion, over either Professor Hausken was able Since the first Winter Olympics in 1924, become obscure. Why, for example, snow or ice, from start to finish. to propose a new format for the Games have evolved. Some sports is the shortest skiing distance in Through careful investigation of the CC BY-SA 3.0 the Winter Olympics, one have been added while others have women’s biathlon (a combination of physiological implications of the five that will allow a fairer and

been dropped; in the case of skeleton cross-country skiing and rifle shooting) events, Professor Hausken aimed to Morgoth666, more exciting event for both (a hair-raising event in which an athlete 6km, whereas their longest distance in develop new recruitment criteria and athletes and spectators. rides a small sled, face down and head speed skating is 6.4km? event formats for these Winter Olympic first, down a steep and winding ice sports, offering expanded, and fairer, track), for example, the event has been When compared to the range of opportunities for athletes. removed and reinstated several times events at the Summer Olympics, Heart rate increases with increasing level of activity. Different Olympic events have different First, Professor Hausken assessed the physiological demands on athletes. differences in track length, and the associated event times, for the five sports. Next, he calculated the ratios Re-assessing the range of events on offer between the longest and shortest could allow more athletes to compete and distances, and between the times kovop58/Shutterstock.com needed to complete those distances. improve the experience for spectators. Professor Hausken then considered the implications of these ratios for the in the five Winter Olympic disciplines bigger difference between the longest physiological demands made on the with three other sports: running, and shortest events in running, allowing athlete: muscle mass and muscle type, walking and swimming. more athletes to compete at a wider and qualities such as the ability to variety of distances, when compared to store glycogen (a form of glucose used Professor Hausken found that the ratio Winter Olympic sports. for energy storage) and anaerobic between the longest and shortest threshold (the point at which the body distances in Olympic running is 422. EVOLVING SPORTS switches from aerobic to anaerobic, In contrast, this ratio is much smaller, The physiological differences between Professor Hausken explored the physiological or “without oxygen,” metabolism). ranging between 2 and 41.5, for the sprint and endurance athletes can be demands of five Winter Olympic sports. He Professor Hausken also compared five Winter Olympic disciplines. This best illustrated by the founding sport proposes a new format that will allow a fairer and more exciting event for both athletes and these qualities in athletes competing means that there is currently a much of the Summer Olympics: running. spectators.

www.researchoutreach.org www.researchoutreach.org THE FUTURE OF THE WINTER OLYMPICS? While both Winter and Summer Olympics Behind the Research can attract athletes who can compete in

sportpoint/Shutterstock.com more than one event, Winter Olympians are more likely to be generalists, while Professor Kjell Hausken those competing in the Summer games tend to be specialists. This is due to the E: [email protected] T: +4795084532 W: https://www.uis.no/nb/profile/2083 sparser options of the Winter Olympics. https://youtube.com/channel/UCogxmrs1pFuny6c8zW9u-2A While skiers might compete in both the shortest race of 1.5km and the longest of 50km, it is unheard-of – if not actually Research Objectives References impossible – for a runner to enter both the 100m sprint and the marathon. Kjell Hausken’s research explores the physiology of Hausken, K. 2019. Evolutions in the Physiology of Skiing, However, a runner might realistically skiing, skating and running. Skating and Running in the Olympics. The Journal of compete at two, possibly even three, Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness, 59, 7, 1175-1194, similar distances: the 100m and 200m, or DOI: 10.23736/S0022-4707.18.08977-6 800m and 1500m, for example. Detail Hausken, K. 2017. Exhaustive Classification and Review Speed skating currently offers the shortest distance of any Winter Olympic event, in the form By offering a wider choice of distances, Kjell Hausken, Faculty of Science and Technology of Techniques and Research Program for Techniques for of a 500m race. These relatively short distances tend to exclude athletes with long-distance or endurance physiological characteristics. Professor Hausken believes that the University of Stavanger Skate Skiing, Classical Skiing, and Ski Mountaineering. Winter Olympics can both attract more 4036 Stavanger, Norway The Open Sports Sciences Journal 10, 160-178, https:// specialised athletes and allow a greater benthamopen.com/FULLTEXT/TOSSJ-10-160 The athletes competing at the two suggests that cross-country skiing number of competitors the opportunity Bio extremes of running – the 100m sprint could be broadened to be as varied to compete at Olympic Games. In Kjell Hausken is Professor at the University of Stavanger and the marathon – have both obvious as running at the Summer Olympics. particular, athletes at the physiological where he does research on economics, risk analysis, and and less visible physical differences. For example, sprint categories could extremes of either sprint or endurance athletics. He has instructed step aerobics since 2009 Personal Response Sprint athletes tend to be heavier, be introduced, offering opportunities abilities will benefit from the enhanced and Les Mills BodyPump since 2010, and has his own with a greater muscle mass. Those for competitors with a sprinter-type chances to compete. youtube channel on step aerobics; https://youtube.com/ Which of your proposed changes would you like to muscles have a high proportion of physiology. For women, cross-country channel/UCogxmrs1pFuny6c8zW9u-2A. He received his see as a priority for the Winter Olympics? “fast twitch” muscle fibres, which skiing distances above the current limit Professor Hausken proposes 26 PhD from the University of Chicago, was a postdoc at Changes to the Winter Olympics format may most are needed for short bursts of power of 30km could be launched to allow new events or categories that could the Max Planck Institute in Cologne, and has published suitably start with extending the ranges for cross and speed. In contrast, long-distance endurance athletes to prove their skill potentially be included in future Winter 250 articles in peer reviewed journals. country skiing and speed skating downwards to 100 athletes are often lighter, with lean (for men, a 50km event exists). Olympics – with equal distances for meters for both men and women, upwards to 50km muscles that are loaded with the “slow men and women. While female athletes Collaborators for women’s cross country skiing, and upwards to twitch” fibres suited to endurance Speed skating currently offers the tend to be slightly slower than their Dr Øyvind Sandbakk is thanked for useful discussions. 100km for speed skating for both men and women. Thereafter similar changes may be made for biathlon events. Interestingly, in terms of the shortest distance of any Winter male counterparts in most sports, this and Nordic combined. physiological diversity of the competing Olympic event, in the form of a 500m difference is most pronounced in sprint events and those that require upper-body strength. In long-distance and endurance Winter Olympians are more likely to be events, however, the time gap narrows (to just 5.3% over a 100km run, for example), generalists, while those competing in the meaning that there is little justification for preventing women from competing Summer games tend to be specialists. at these longer distances. Gender equity considerations also suggest equal athletes, there is currently no Winter race. The longest speed skating event distances for men and women. Olympic equivalent to 100 running, is 10km (for men; 5km for women). and no Winter Olympic equivalent These relatively short distances tend to Professor Hausken believes that the to marathon aside from 50km cross exclude athletes with long-distance or proposed new format for the Winter country skiing for men. endurance physiological characteristics. Olympics would support and enhance To remedy this, Professor Hausken the existing recruitment criteria of the Superficially, running and cross-country proposes the addition of longer races, Games, which include maximising the skiing are similar events: both involve potentially even up to 100km. While popularity of the Games and ensuring moving from A to B in the shortest some might argue that a lengthy event their relevance to young people. possible time. Currently, however, of this type would not be interesting for Beyond that, the new format would there are far fewer categories in cross- TV viewers, other races that are longer ensure a fairer, more inclusive and more country skiing, excluding athletes who in duration, such as the marathon, exciting event for the two groups of do not have the necessary physiology cycling (e.g. Tour de France), or people at the heart of the Games: the

to be competitive. Professor Hausken racewalking are often televised in full. athletes and the spectators. Macrovector/Shutterstock.com

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