Watch the above video: Ever seen what Olympians looked like when the winter games were created in 1924? Minna Rhee takes a look at the evolving shape of Olympic athletes.
TORONTO – The athletes competing in the 2014 Olympics in Sochi would be almost unrecognizable to participants in the first modern Olympics in Athens, Greece in 1896.
In both summer and winter Olympics, athletes continue to evolve, setting new records along the way.
“The ideal Olympic athlete throughout all the history of the Olympics is someone who pushes the limit of what humans are capable of,” said Dr. Greg Wells, an assistant professor of kinesiology at the University of Toronto. “Olympians have become specialized in what they’re trying to do. If you look at their bodies you can see the specific adaptations that they’ve gone through to get to where they are.”
Wells uses the example of figure skating, which has pushed skaters to achieve more complex and athletic routines.
READ MORE: Canada wins gold with 3-2 overtime victory
“When figure skating was beginning, it was simply, can you do one rotation? Whereas now we see athletes do four rotations followed by three rotations and executing the quad with precision and so much incredible explosiveness,” he said.
Winter sports such as downhill skiing focus on the development of specific muscle groups in the legs and back to help skiers to adapt to faster times.
- Canadian man dies during Texas Ironman event. His widow wants answers as to why
- ‘Sciatica was gone’: hospital performs robot-assisted spinal surgery in Canadian first
- Canadians more likely to eat food past best-before date. What are the risks?
- Treatment from female doctors leads to lower death rates, study finds
Madison Irwin is a Canadian alpine skier looking to make the Winter Olympics in 2018 in Korea.
“People are training more. You don’t just participate in the sport. You train for the sport, whether it’s on-hill or off-hill,” Irwin said. “The off-hill or off-competition part of the training has definitely amped up since the Olympics have began.”
Irwin says training during the summer can be intense, with two to three training sessions a day, five to six days of the week, that includes both weight lifting and interval training.
READ MORE: Harper ‘looking forward’ to beer from Obama after Olympic hockey win
As athletes have pushed boundaries in pursuit of faster times or longer distances, the equipment has been forced to evolve with changing bodies of athletes.
“One of the coolest things about the winter Olympics is that athletes are integrated with their environment a lot more than they are in the summer Olympics,” Wells said. “They’re flying down mountains of ice, they’re using skis, skates. … So equipment plays a huge role and obviously the technological developments determine in many cases the outcome of the race.”
For Irwin, the dreamt of representing her country on the international stage is all she can think about.
“How badly do I want it? Badly,” she said. “I’m so excited to see how Canada does against the best in the world, because if you win, you’re the best in the world.”
*With files from Global’s Minna Rhee
Comments