By Dr. Greg Wells, CTV Sport Science & Sport Medicine Consultant. January 30, 2010.

Read this post on CTVOlympics.ca.

The Olympics is less than 2 weeks away and I am getting crazy excited. One of the reasons why I love the winter Olympics so much is that the sports are, for the most part, performed on ice and snow. And that means more speed, more height, and more risk. In no sport is this more relevant than Alpine skiing.

Studying alpine skiing is so much fun for me as a scientist because it allows me to look at the performance of the human body at the outside limits of its abilities. These athletes have to push the envelope of what they are capable of just to compete, let alone have any chance of winning. Think about these facts:

Over 1 km of vertical drop.

Speeds of more than 130 km / hr.

A course that’s made up mostly of ice.

Skis with edges as sharp as razor blades.

That’s just the beginning. To win you have to go as fast as you can while staying in control. The successful skiers can bring themselves right to the very edge, and hold themselves there for the entire 2 minutes of the race. Here is some great helmet cam footage of the downhill course at Salt Lake City that might help put this crazy sport in perspective. Check it out.

OK so that is pretty tough and we get how extreme this sport is. But there are a whole bunch of other factors that make the performances of downhill skiers even more amazing. The first is what happens to the body during all the turns. Basically the huge muscles in the legs, glutes and back contract simultaneously as the skier enters the turn to fight against his inertia – this helps him change direction around the turn.

The reason this is so hard on the body is that, while the muscle is contracting the skier is also being loaded with extra forces like inertia (or “centrifugal force” in this case), and the tiny fibres that make up the muscle can get torn more easily.  This is why we get sore when we lift weights or do a lot of exercise that we are not prepared for.  Skiers train for years to be able to not only handle this physical stress but to push the body as hard as they can when it matters the most. In the slalom events, that means up to 65 (women) to 75 (men) turns in one race.

The other factor we sometimes don’t think about is how hard racing in the cold can be. Even though there have been warm temperatures in Vancouver, Whistler is expected to be between -12 and -5 degrees Celsius at the start house where the race begins. Cold causes the body to try to preserve its heat, and it does that by shifting blood flow from the skin and muscles back into the internal organs in the chest and belly area. The effect of this is that the skiers feel sluggish because of the lower blood flow to the arms and legs. Don’t be surprised to see skiers jumping around and hitting their arms and legs trying to keep warm, and to re-activate their circulatory systems right before they start.

Watching the downhill events should be amazing, and I hope that a little physiological information can help you enjoy the races even more. If you have any questions send me a direct message @drgregwells on twitter.

Dr. Greg Wells will be a regular contributor on CTVOlympics.ca. Follow him throughout the Olympics at www.twitter.com/drgregwells.