scholarly journals Ski Mountaineering: Perspectives on a Novel Sport to Be Introduced at the 2026 Winter Olympic Games

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorenzo Bortolan ◽  
Aldo Savoldelli ◽  
Barbara Pellegrini ◽  
Roberto Modena ◽  
Massimiliano Sacchi ◽  
...  

Ski mountaineering is a rapidly growing winter sport that involves alternately climbing and descending slopes and various racing formats that differ in length and total vertical gain, as well as their distribution of downhill and uphill sections. In recent years, both participation in and media coverage of this sport have increased dramatically, contributing, at least in part, to its inclusion in the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina. Here, our aim has been to briefly describe the major characteristics of ski mountaineering, its physiological and biomechanical demands, equipment, and training/testing, as well as to provide some future perspectives. Despite its popularity, research on this discipline is scarce, but some general characteristics are already emerging. Pronounced aerobic capacity is an important requirement for success, as demonstrated by positive correlations between racing time and maximal oxygen uptake and oxygen uptake at the second ventilatory threshold. Moreover, due to the considerable mechanical work against gravity on demanding uphill terrain, the combined weight of the athlete and equipment is inversely correlated with performance, prompting the development of both lighter and better equipment in recent decades. In ski mountaineering, velocity uphill is achieved primarily by more frequent (rather than longer) strides due primarily to high resistive forces. The use of wearable technologies, designed specifically for analysis in the field (including at elevated altitudes and cold temperatures) and more extensive collaboration between researchers, industrial actors, and coaches/athletes, could further improve the development of this sport.

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ari Kim ◽  
Moonhoon Choi ◽  
Kyriaki Kaplanidou

Residents’ support for hosting the Olympic Games is crucial for a bid to succeed in the Olympic host-city selection process. Because of the vital role of the media in framing public perceptions of Olympic bids, the purpose of this study was to examine media coverage of hosting the Olympic Games during the Olympic host-city bid process. A quantitative content analysis was conducted on newspaper articles about Pyeongchang, Korea. Pyeongchang was a candidate city for 3 consecutive bids for the Winter Olympic Games, and it finally won its latest bid to host the 2018 Games. Six hundred Korean newspaper articles were collected for analysis. The results indicated that positive, nationwide discussions of hosting the Olympic Games were presented during the successful bid. Infrastructure legacy was mentioned frequently and dominantly for both successful and unsuccessful bid periods, whereas the presence of sport-development and sociocultural-legacy themes increased in the latest, successful, bid. In addition, extensive coverage related to celebrity endorsement was found during the successful bid.


VASA ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 275-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
da Rocha Chehuen ◽  
G. Cucato ◽  
P. dos Anjos Souza Barbosa ◽  
A. R. Costa ◽  
M. Ritti-Dias ◽  
...  

Background: This study assessed the relationship between lower limb hemodynamics and metabolic parameters with walking tolerance in patients with intermittent claudication (IC). Patients and methods: Resting ankle-brachial index (ABI), baseline blood flow (BF), BF response to reactive hyperemia (BFRH), oxygen uptake (VO2), initial claudication distance (ICD) and total walking distance (TWD) were measured in 28 IC patients. Pearson and Spearman correlations were calculated. Results: ABI, baseline BF and BF response to RH did not correlate with ICD or TWD. VO2 at first ventilatory threshold and VO2peak were significantly and positively correlated with ICD (r = 0.41 and 0.54, respectively) and TWD (r = 0.65 and 0.71, respectively). Conclusions: VO2peak and VO2 at first ventilatory threshold, but not ABI, baseline BF and BFHR were associated with walking tolerance in IC patients. These results suggest that VO2 at first ventilatory threshold may be useful to evaluate walking tolerance and improvements in IC patients.


2017 ◽  
Vol 236 ◽  
pp. 444-450 ◽  
Author(s):  
Setor K. Kunutsor ◽  
Sudhir Kurl ◽  
Hassan Khan ◽  
Francesco Zaccardi ◽  
Jari A. Laukkanen

2015 ◽  
Vol 40 (9) ◽  
pp. 918-923 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelly de Jesus ◽  
Ana Sousa ◽  
Karla de Jesus ◽  
João Ribeiro ◽  
Leandro Machado ◽  
...  

Swimming and training are carried out with wide variability in distances and intensities. However, oxygen uptake kinetics for the intensities seen in swimming has not been reported. The purpose of this study was to assess and compare the oxygen uptake kinetics throughout low-moderate to severe intensities during incremental swimming exercise. We hypothesized that the oxygen uptake kinetic parameters would be affected by swimming intensity. Twenty male trained swimmers completed an incremental protocol of seven 200-m crawl swims to exhaustion (0.05 m·s−1 increments and 30-s intervals). Oxygen uptake was continuously measured by a portable gas analyzer connected to a respiratory snorkel and valve system. Oxygen uptake kinetics was assessed using a double exponential regression model that yielded both fast and slow components of the response of oxygen uptake to exercise. From low-moderate to severe swimming intensities changes occurred for the first and second oxygen uptake amplitudes (P ≤ 0.04), time constants (P = 0.01), and time delays (P ≤ 0.02). At the heavy and severe intensities, a notable oxygen uptake slow component (>255 mL·min−1) occurred in all swimmers. Oxygen uptake kinetics whilst swimming at different intensities offers relevant information regarding cardiorespiratory and metabolic stress that might be useful for appropriate performance diagnosis and training prescription.


Author(s):  
Hanapi M. Johari ◽  
Brinnell A. Caszo ◽  
Victor F. Knight ◽  
Steven A. Lumley ◽  
Aminuddin K. Abdul Hamid ◽  
...  

2002 ◽  
Vol 93 (3) ◽  
pp. 1000-1006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary F. Feitosa ◽  
Steven E. Gaskill ◽  
Treva Rice ◽  
Tuomo Rankinen ◽  
Claude Bouchard ◽  
...  

This study investigates whether there are major gene effects on oxygen uptake at the ventilatory threshold (V˙o 2 VT) and theV˙o 2 VT maximal oxygen uptake (VT%V˙o 2 max), at baseline and in response to 20 wk of exercise training by using data on 336 whites and 160 blacks. Segregation analysis was performed on the residuals ofV˙o 2 VT and VT%V˙o 2 max. In whites, there was strong evidence of a major gene, with 3 and 2% of the sample in the upper distribution, that accounted for 52 and 43% of the variance in baseline V˙o 2 VT and VT%V˙o 2 max, respectively. There were no genotype-specific covariate effects (sex, age, weight, fat mass, and fat-free mass). The segregation results were inconclusive for the training response in whites, and for the baseline and training response in blacks, probably due to insufficient power because of reduced sample sizes or smaller gene effect or both. The strength of the genetic evidence for V˙o 2 VT and VT%V˙o 2 max suggests that these traits should be further investigated for potential relations with specific candidate genes, if they can be identified, and explored through a genome-wide scan.


2016 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 179-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Vilaça-Alves ◽  
Nuno Miguel Freitas ◽  
Francisco José Saavedra ◽  
Christopher B. Scott ◽  
Victor Machado dos Reis ◽  
...  

AbstractThe aim of this study was to compare the values of oxygen uptake (VO2) during and after strength training exercises (STe) and ergometer exercises (Ee), matched for intensity and exercise time. Eight men (24 ± 2.33 years) performed upper and lower body cycling Ee at the individual’s ventilatory threshold (VE/VCO2). The STe session included half squats and the bench press which were performed with a load at the individual blood lactate concentration of 4 mmol/l. Both sessions lasted 30 minutes, alternating 50 seconds of effort with a 10 second transition time between upper and lower body work. The averaged overall VO2 between sessions was significantly higher for Ee (24.96 ± 3.6 ml·kg·min-1) compared to STe (21.66 ± 1.77 ml·kg·min-1) (p = 0.035), but this difference was only seen for the first 20 minutes of exercise. Absolute VO2 values between sessions did not reveal differences. There were more statistically greater values in Ee compared to STe, regarding VO2 of lower limbs (25.44 ± 3.84 ml·kg·min-1 versus 21.83 ± 2·24 ml·kg·min-1; p = 0.038) and upper limbs (24.49 ± 3.84 ml·kg·min-1 versus 21.54 ± 1.77 ml·kg·min-1; p = 0.047). There were further significant differences regarding the moment effect (p<0.0001) of both STe and Ee sessions. With respect to the moment × session effect, only VO2 5 minutes into recovery showed significant differences (p = 0.017). In conclusion, although significant increases in VO2 were seen following Ee compared to STe, it appears that the load/intensity, and not the material/equipment used for the execution of an exercise, are variables that best influence oxygen uptake.


2001 ◽  
Author(s):  

After government control over the media was liberalized in 1998, Indonesian journalists had a new mandate to explore new issues and foster public debate. Several studies had found evidence that women’s health worsened from 1997–99, yet media coverage of this topic was limited. To increase press coverage of reproductive health (RH) topics, the Population Council conducted an 18-month media project in collaboration with the State Ministry for Women’s Empowerment and other key agencies. The project focused on improving RH knowledge and reporting skills among 22 print journalists. Project staff monitored RH coverage in 22 major newspapers, magazines, and tabloids. After Indonesian journalists received background information and training on RH issues, the quality of their coverage improved. However, as noted in this brief, continued efforts are needed to provide media representatives with ideas for news stories and feature articles and training in use of research findings.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hengshuo Zhang ◽  
Yang Yu ◽  
Tonggang Zha

&lt;p&gt;Alpine mountain ecosystem shows strong interactions between abiotic and biotic parameters. They also received high attention from human activities. Considering coming international events such as the Winter Olympic Games (WOG) and its human impacts, foreseeing uncontrolled ecosystem changes is key. In this research, the vegetation communities distribution under different conditions were modeled in the Yin Mountains in Chongli Country (China), the core area of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games. Firstly, we surveyed the key factors limiting the vegetation communities development to guide the vegetation restoration after major events in this region. After that, the vegetation succession stage was assessed using the Two-way indicator species analysis (TWINSPAN) and market basket analysis (MBA) to classify the vegetation communities. Plant community and relationships among environmental variables were investigated through the trend correspondence (DCA) and canonical correspondence analyses (CCA). The results show that soil moisture and organic matter could be considered the main factors limiting the development of shrub and herb communities. The distribution of different forest communities was mainly affected by geomorphological factors such as slope positions, aspect and inclination. In middle and high altitude areas, apart of arbor and shrub communities generally showed the process of transformation from the pioneer community to transitional community in the competition. We conclude that providing the basis to understand the environmental factors that restrict the development of vegetation communities in the northern Yin Mountains was helpful to foresee uncontrolled and coming impacts after the WOG.&lt;/p&gt;


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document