Drag reduction, cut prevention, energy absorption... There are so many high-tech features in the "battle uniforms" of Winter Olympic athletes!

As the 2022 Winter Olympics approaches, are we looking forward to seeing the athletes compete in the arena? While paying attention to ice and snow sports and the athletes' agile postures, have you noticed their competition uniforms?

What little secrets do we know about athletes' uniforms? And how do they help our Olympic athletes?

In fact, athletes' competition uniforms must not only look good, but also have certain functions. In addition to meeting basic comfort requirements such as moisture absorption and perspiration, warmth retention, etc., they must also consider the characteristics of the sport and have multiple functions such as improving sports performance. A good "battle uniform" can also provide effective assistance for athletes to achieve good results.

Source: Internet

The "battle uniforms" of athletes at the 2022 Winter Olympics can be said to be the result of the hard work of scientists. A "battle uniform" uses many modern high-tech means. Competition uniforms rich in scientific and technological power have long been used in many competitions, such as speed skating, short track speed skating, alpine skiing, bobsleigh, etc.

According to the characteristics of the sports and clothing requirements of the competition events, as the competition equipment that covers the largest area of ​​the athlete's body, the competition uniforms also have their own characteristics. For example, in the Winter Olympics racing events, athletes have four main requirements for competition uniforms: fast, protective, warm, and beautiful. So how do scientists give these functions to competition uniforms? Let me reveal the secrets to you~

1 Fast

Drag reduction

Source: Internet

In the Winter Olympics, in order to maximize the speed of athletes, most athletes wear tight sportswear. The main requirement of athletes for tights is drag reduction. The air resistance of a single athlete includes friction resistance and pressure difference resistance.

The drag reduction effect is affected by the fabric of the competition clothing. In aerodynamics, the drag coefficient is generally used to judge the drag reduction performance of the fabric. The larger the drag coefficient, the greater the resistance, and the worse the drag reduction effect. The drag coefficient is proportional to the aerodynamic resistance of the fabric. In this way, the smaller the aerodynamic resistance of the fabric, the smaller the drag coefficient, the smaller the resistance during movement, and the better the drag reduction effect of this piece of fabric.

Aerodynamic drag = 1/2 drag coefficient × gas density × windward area projection × air flow velocity 2

Scientists conduct research on fabric air friction resistance and wind tunnel tests, simulate the scenes and wind speeds of various competition events, and the competition postures of athletes, and explore clothing fabrics of different materials. They judge whether the fabric has a good drag reduction effect based on indicators such as its air friction resistance and aerodynamic drag coefficient.

Source: Internet

Take speed skating tights as an example. The fabric uses a rough texture structure similar to the honeycomb structure on golf balls, which can reduce the turbulence of the wake and achieve a drag reduction effect. For example, if you throw a golf ball and a ping-pong ball with the same force, the golf ball can fly farther. One reason is that the mass of the golf ball is greater than that of the ping-pong ball, and the other is that the surface of the golf ball is rough and has less resistance. If you don't believe it, you can try throwing a ping-pong ball and throw it hard. The ping-pong ball does not fly straight, and if you want it to fly straight, you have to throw it hard. Because the surface of a ping-pong ball is smooth, it will produce wake turbulence when it moves in the air, so it is subject to greater air resistance. The surface of a golf ball is uneven, which avoids the turbulence of the wake when it moves in the air, so it is subject to less air resistance.

Source: Internet

A certain regular rough surface can reduce the resistance of ski suits by 10%. The resistance coefficient of rough surface fabrics drops sharply at wind speeds between 50-60km/h. So this is contrary to our common sense that the smoother the fabric, the lower the resistance. This is mainly because, to a certain extent, slightly rough materials can make air flow over the surface of the material in a more stable manner, guide the flow of wind in a better way, and help reduce pressure difference resistance.

In addition, scientists have found that cutting and splicing are also key to reducing drag. The direction of the fabric seams is consistent with the direction of the airflow or away from the windward position, which can reduce the wrinkles at the splicing and increase the drag.

The impact of tight clothing on energy metabolism and muscles

In fact, a good tights can reduce soft tissue vibration during exercise. When athletes perform high-speed, high-impact movements such as turning and jumping, tights with good compression can tightly wrap soft tissue and muscles, reduce their shaking, and thus reduce soft tissue or muscle damage to athletes. At the same time, appropriate and reasonably distributed clothing pressure is conducive to reducing unnecessary muscle vibration, so that athletes can reduce physical energy consumption and help improve speed.

Source: Zhang Qian. Research on the curve design of ski suits. Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology.

As shown in the picture, the curved dividing line of the tights tilts from the hip bone to the inner thigh, tightly binding the thigh extensor muscles (vastus lateralis, vastus medialis, rectus femoris) arranged in parallel in this area together, effectively bundling them into a whole. This can reduce unnecessary muscle vibrations of the athlete, while also optimizing the athlete's streamline and reducing resistance.

Image source: Zhang Qian. Research on the curve design of ski suits. Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology.

Seeing this, you may wonder, won’t clothes with a strong sense of oppression affect the performance of athletes? Will it be more difficult for athletes to move than before? Scientists are also thinking about this problem. In response to this situation, they measured the three muscle contraction modes (isometric, isokinetic, isokinetic) and the force output and muscle activation parameters of the rebound action of the athletes under the tight compression conditions of the lower limbs. The results showed that the tights not only did not affect the athletes’ muscle strength, explosive power and vertical jump height, but also reduced the electromyographic activity while maintaining similar force output. In other words, tights not only have no effect on the athletes’ movements, but can also reduce the fatigue caused by long-term exercise.

Optimize athletes’ technical movements

In further investigation of tights, researchers found that tights can also optimize athletes' technical movements. The results showed that when wearing compression pants, the vertical ground reaction force can be reduced by 9%, the speed of the center of pressure movement is reduced by 14%, and the center of pressure is closer to the inner sole of the foot. This is a manifestation of improved dynamic balance ability, which improves speed by optimizing athletes' technical movements.

2 Guard

Most of the events in the Winter Olympics involve collisions. For example, in speed skating, the skates are longer than ordinary skates. Athletes can get hurt if they are not careful. Alpine skiing is also full of dangers. Therefore, special attention should be paid to the protection of sportswear for collision events.

Source: Internet

The overall suits used in short track speed skating are made of highly elastic cutting fabrics. Imagine if we use a knife to cut paper and bubble gum, are the results different? The higher the elasticity, the less likely it is to be cut.

In alpine skiing events, athletes are required to pass through gates, which inevitably results in some collisions. Many athletes' limbs are often whipped by the soft poles of the gates, resulting in bruises. The newly developed alpine skiing training protective clothing uses a new columnar arrangement type impact-resistant structure and a new energy-absorbing and shock-absorbing material. The fabric of this material can effectively reduce the impact and alleviate the whipping of athletes when passing through the gates.

Source: Internet

3 Warm

Because the competition is on ice and snow, we have to consider the issue of keeping the athletes warm. After much thought, the researchers found two methods. One is to start with the fabric of the clothes to improve the warmth retention rate of the fiber; the other is to use active heating technology to convert electrical energy into thermal energy, so it is not a joke to install batteries in the clothes of athletes. Before, after and in daily life, our researchers developed the "Fortress" comprehensive warmth system and installed batteries on the athletes' clothes.

Scientists Stuff Batteries Into Athletes' Clothes

Source | CCTV Video

However, for speed racing events, warmth is the last thing researchers consider. And some events, such as alpine skiing, require clothing fabrics to have a certain degree of breathability before being allowed to be worn. Because for the competition, athletes have already warmed up before going on the field, and they just need to stay out of harm's way and keep rushing forward. The competition process is generally fast, and the cold does not have much impact on athletes. So when "fast" and "protection" conflict with "heat", researchers will give priority to "fast" and "protection".

4. Beauty

When it comes to the clothes of Winter Olympic athletes, the first reaction may be: beautiful clothes design does not add points, clothes are just for the audience to see. In fact, it is not true. In the competition, the beauty of the clothes sometimes adds points to the athletes. For example, in freestyle aerial skiing, when the athletes are in the air, the beauty of the clothes will affect the judges' scores. In particular, the color and pattern of the clothes may affect the competition results.

Color simulation of skiing apparel

Source | CCTV Video

Of course, some people also said that they don’t want to see the classic tomato and egg color combination again. We all hope that the costumes at the 2022 Winter Olympics can be beautiful, novel and trendy.

In this regard, designer Liu Yanling said: In terms of clothing style, it will be more fashionable and in the direction of national trends; in terms of design, it will be more modern, and perhaps more modern and abstract graphics will be adopted; and in terms of color and matching, more beautiful colors will be selected to reflect our unique national style.

Source: Internet Speaking of this, do you have a new understanding of the Winter Olympics tights? I didn’t expect that a piece of clothing could have so many “black technologies”.

It is powerful, but that does not prevent it from being approachable. Researchers say that this garment can be hand washed or machine washed.

Do you guys really want to own a piece of clothing like this? When the Winter Olympic athletes wear their "battle uniforms" on the field, don't forget to like their clothes, because these are the hard work of scientists!

Source of data in this article: Yang Chenhao, Yang Yang, Hu Qi, et al. Research and application status of tight clothing in Winter Olympic speed sports[J]. China Sports Science and Technology, 2020, 56(1):7.

Audit expert: Zhou Liya

Associate Professor, School of Fashion, Donghua University

Source: Digital Beijing Science Center