Scaling new heights: load cells and athlete training for the Paris 2024 Olympics
It’s that time again, when almost everyone becomes a sports fan for a month, cheering on their country in the Olympics and Paralympics.
Load cells have long been a part of both the development and testing of sports equipment, and increasingly in the training of elite athletes too. This week we take a look at load cell use in training for three lesser-known Olympic sports.
Formula Kite
A new sport at the Paris Olympics 2024 is Formula Kite, where athletes steer a foil kite whilst standing on a board with a hydrofoil. Interestingly, there is no one design for the Formula Kite, and competitors can choose from a range of production models. It’s incredibly fast and probably the nearest thing to flying like a seagull most of us will experience!
According to an article by Cyclops Marine, load cells can be used in training but not in an Olympic event itself. Olympic sailing federations already use live data from wireless load cell data to note changes in boat set-up in varying conditions.
For Formula Kite competitors, using load cells in training is important:
“The load cells enabled us to actually visualise the interconnection between load into our harness and speed. Even though load is just one variable next to board-heel, foil and kite-trim, it marks an essential part in quantifying potential gains on the race track.”
Jannis Maus, former World Champion & 5X German Champion – Formula Kite
Team Rowing
Team GB actually do quite well in rowing. At the time of writing, the Women’s quadruple sculls crew are in the final, with the women’s double sculls just beaten in the semi finals.
A paper by a team at the University of Winconsin-Madison looked at the issue of lower limb asymmetry in rowers, as:
“Rowing athletes, particularly women, are susceptible to lower back or hip injuries (due to) asymmetric weight distributions on each leg while rowing. … Only having one oar can cause differences in force exertion through each foot based on which side the oar is.”
Key to the testing are load cells in practice equipment that compress when the rower pushes against it. The team needed a solution for three locations: their trainer machine in the boat house, in the boat and in the training tank.
They built 3 devices which featured:
- A Force-Sensitive Resistor
- A Silicone-Magnetic Force Sensor
- Miniature Compression Load Cells
To see which device came out on top for their criteria, and where it was most useful, check out their presentation PDF here.
Sport Climbing
Sport climbing involves scaling a climbing wall using pre-set handholds, and frankly, it makes your hands ache just to watch it.
A team from Politecnico di Torino, DIMEAS set out to investigate how load cells might help climbers train.
“Climbing is a complex task, involving strength, balance and coordination. The performance of a climber is experience based and more insights in the mechanics of climbing could be gained by measuring the contact forces of the climber, for the centre of mass calculation in real time.
A multi-axial load cell was developed to measure the evolution of load in time and space. The sensor is clamped on the climbing wall and on the other side the hold is blocked. When the climber hangs on the hold the load signal is read and sent to a PC.”
The team’s sensor design allowed them to measure the force regardless of where the climber put their hand/fingers on the hold.
Find out more at the Paris 2024 website for the two sport climbing competitions – boulders and speed. https://olympics.com/en/paris-2024/sports/sport-climbing
Load cells for training data and performance improvements
We build our own load cells right here in Reading England, and we’ve designed load cell systems for a wide range of clients including commercial and academic. So if you have a load cell conundrum, contact us first. We are always happy to help. Or if you know what you want, just browse our online load cell shop for quick delivery from within the UK.
