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Andrew Feinberg
white house correspondent
Long curly hair and baggy clothing can significantly reduce the performance of athletes participating in the long jump and 100-meter dash, a study has found.
According to the research team, which includes aerospace engineers from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, the difference is enough to cost gold medals in either sport.
Ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics, aerodynamic scientists involved in the study suggested that the introduction of hair caps and low-resistance clothing could “level the playing field” in each sport. There is.
It also recommended using a wind tunnel to test clothing for athletes in both sports.
The research team, in collaboration with the University of Leuven in Belgium and the US software company Ansys, studied the aerodynamics of 10 different hairstyles and 20 different clothing styles in the long jump and 100 meter dash.
Although this study focused only on female athletes, the findings may also apply to men with long hair.
Researchers found that for long jumpers, long, curly hair and loose-fitting clothing can reduce jump distance by up to 10 centimeters.
In the 100-meter dash, the same combination can reduce your finishing time by up to 0.07 seconds.
A surprising misconception persists to this day among some athletes and their coaches that aerodynamic drag is unimportant in track and field.
Professor Bert Brocken, Heriot-Watt University
Professor Bert Brocken, an expert in aerodynamics at Heriot-Watt University, said: “There is a surprising misconception among some athletes and their coaches to this day that aerodynamic drag is not that important in athletics.” said.
“This is compared to faster sports such as cycling, speed skating and skiing, where the influence of clothing and hairstyle has been well established over the past few decades.
“However, our research shows that this opinion is fundamentally wrong, and that hairstyle and clothing can cause significant resistance in events such as the long jump and 100-meter dash.
“In both events, the impact on performance is enough to cost you a gold medal.”
Using a life-sized plastic mannequin in a wind tunnel, the researchers used a combination of numerical calculations and computational fluid dynamics modeling to test different combinations of hairstyles and clothing.
They studied 28 different jumping positions in the long jump event.
“These differences can be decisive in high-stakes sporting events, where the slightest difference of a second or centimeter can mean the difference between winning or losing a medal,” Professor Brocken said. spoke.
He added: “Hair caps have rarely been used in the long jump or 100 meters, even by top athletes, and it is surprising that track and field clothing has not been systematically tested in a wind tunnel. ” he added.
The research will be published in the Journal of Wind Engineering & Industrial Aerodynamics.
Thierry Marchal, Principal Engineer at Ansys, said: “Ansys is proud to partner with Professor Bert Brocken, who has repeatedly demonstrated how simulation can contribute to athlete safety and performance.
“Our simulation software is used across a wide range of sports to help engineers and athletes transform performance and was a key element of this research.
“Winning in sports is determined by increasingly small margins. Using simulation to improve factors such as aerodynamics can give you a competitive advantage to achieve winning performances. ”
