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258,000, is sending just two table tennis it plays an important role within the academy. ETON L players, two athletes and a judo competitor Bryce Dyer, senior lecturer in product YTT L D to the London Games. They will be based design at Bournemouth University, has been AVI D at Manchester Metropolitan University, working with Irish Paralympic athlete Colin which is also hosting pre-Games training Lynch to design a new prosthetic leg for this camps for other Pacific Island teams and summer’s competition. Brazil’s Paralympic team before the athletes “We took the model of a traditional pros- decamp to the Olympic village in London. thetic limb and threw it away, starting with At the other end of the scale, most of a blank canvas,” he explains. China’s massive squad will be based at “When amputees lose a limb, they tend Leeds Metropolitan University and the to replace it with what they lost. But with University of Leeds. athletes you need to consider prosthetic limbs Of course, the arrival of thousands of as a piece of equipment. athletes and support staff this summer is “We made one out of carbon fibre, thinking not necessarily good news from everyone’s about aerodynamics and power transfer.” point of view; it will cause disruption on The limb has already helped the double many campuses over the summer. Paracycling world champion to smash his UEL’s main library will become a temporary personal best ahead of the London Games. media centre during the Olympics and Para- Such innovations in sports technology lympics, for example, while many athletes could also be transferred to other applications, are likely to be on site in the busy period argues Dyer. when clearing for 2012 opens on 16 August. “I hope this will [encourage] other pros- But Brunel’s Campbell insists that the activi- thetic experts to take a lateral approach to ties will not be a problem for staff, thanks to design and come up with new ideas,” he says. plans already put in place, and he believes staff “Many innovations from elite sport have and students will revel in the atmosphere. filtered down into everyday uses. For instance, “There will be a real buzz about the place. ABS [anti-lock braking system] came from It’s been four years in the planning and every the world of Formula One racing. support service area is catered for. Everyone “When money is no object and all that is feeling comfortable.” matters is winning, as in sport, you see big changes in technology. eyond the campus training camps and “A lot of prosthesis design has been linked international links, the organisers of to the Paralympics. Some changes might mean BLondon 2012 say the Olympics and helping soldiers return to combat after losing Paralympics will help to stimulate new areas a limb.” of academic research. He believes this summer’s Olympics will be Research projects have already sprung up the perfect opportunity to demonstrate some around the Olympics and dozens of public of the exciting technological research coming lectures, talks and symposia have been from UK universities. planned around the Games. “Projects like this will showcase the exper- With sports courses now offered at almost tise we have in this country,” he says. half of the UK’s universities, sports science is “It’s a great moment to showcase British no longer a niche interest in higher education; engineering at its best – something we desper- ately need to do at the moment.” THE HOME NATION EFFECT Research at Canterbury Christ Church Uni- versity into the classification of disabled athletes Team GB will win Olympics, Team GB at the Paralympics was awarded a gold medal 27 gold medals scooped 19 gold by Podium, a government-funded body set up and 56 medals in medals thanks to the to promote university engagement with the total at London UK’s strategic approach Olympics, at an award ceremony in May. 2012, academics to elite sport adopted Other outstanding studies given top have predicted. in the late 1990s. prizes at these awards include research into Using an economic Scientists at elite sporting performance at Liverpool John forecasting model, Sheffield Hallam based Moores University and Sheffield Hallam Sheffield Hallam Univer- their predictions on a University. sity’s Sport Industry theory that elite perfor- A further legacy of the 2012 Games, some Research Centre claims mance is now more a have predicted, could be a surge in interest that British athletes will matter of public invest- in sport at universities, given that many of take home medals in 15 ment rather than popu- Team GB’s competitors are students. 9 5 sports, possibly finishing lation size or GDP. Among them will be UEL postgraduate 11 6 15 9 as high as third in the Other factors include Sophie Cox, who will represent Great Britain 5 overall medal table. the “home nation in judo. 15 4 This would be a effect”, which has led to “Having current students competing at 7 massive improvement improved performance by the Olympics is useful when attracting other on the UK’s performance host nations in the past. elite athletes,” says Elizabeth Egan, high at the 1996 games in Four years ago, the performance sports manager at UEL. Atlanta, when just one Sheffield Hallam team “They will tell their peers about how they gold medal was won, predicted China would have combined training with study, and they courtesy of rowers Sir win 46 gold medals may think about coming to study here. Steve Redgrave and at Beijing – the closest “Having these competitors is also very University of Cambridge Cambridge of University Oxford of University University of Exeter Exeter of University Nottingham of University Edinburgh of University Bath of University University of Southampton of University Oxford Brookes University University Brookes Oxford University Loughborough University of Reading of University Matthew Pinsent. prediction to the actual inspiring for other students. It is fantastic At the Beijing total of 51. to have role models like Sophie at the Medals won by students and alumni of each university between 1992 and 2008 university.” l 38 Times Higher Education 19 July 2012 19 July 2012 Times Higher Education 39.

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