US Olympic Swimmers and their {mostly} Secret Math Techniques
August 14, 2008
 
Michael Phelps has become the golden boy of Olympic swimming. USA Swimming is breaking records and hoarding gold. Journalists attribute the leaps in performance to The new Speedo LZR RACER suit, Pool Depth, Empty Pool Lanes, More Time to Practice, or doping. They overlooked the top secret weapon of the USA Swimming: math.
 
Professor Timothy Wei, of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., was enlisted by USA Swimming’s biomechanics manager, Russell Mark, to develop mathematical techniques and diagnostic technologies, which would enable coaches to see how each swimmers’ motion affects the flow of water.
 
Wei, the acting dean of RPI’s engineering school, applied fluid mechanics to help swimmers adjust their stroke to go faster. He designed a swimming pool able to measure an athletes performance in real time. Digital Particle Image Velocimetry is a video-based flow measurement technique, originally created for aerospace research. It detects the flow of water around the swimmer and calculates the energy exerted by the swimmer.
 
Wei compiled reports comparing the techniques of the U.S. swim team, which pinpointed the swimmers with the best technique. For instance, Megan Jendrick has the best breast stroke kick, based on the reports. So Hutchinson mandated that all U.S. team swimmers adopt her technique. The USA team has also utilized fluid dynamics specialist from other universities.
 
BBC recently reported that a George Washington University fluid dynamics research project helped refine Phelp’s submarine stroke.
 
{"BBC" = British Broadcasting Corp.?}