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Science for sports and society

26 July 2024 | Achieving the level of athletic performance necessary to compete with the best of the best requires talent, hard work – and often also support from science. Be it in terms of technique, strategy or equipment, many athletes rely on input from university labs in their preparations for big competitions.

To celebrate excellence in sports, we have collected a range of stories on how research contributes to making athletes run faster, jump higher, be stronger – and not just them: Many inventions also benefit the broader public: children, impaired people, or simply everyone.

Élodie Doyen

IP Paris: Optimizing prostheses for disabled long jumpers

During her thesis, Elodie Doyen worked with long-jump athletes with tibial amputations, including Dimitri Pavadé, Paralympic vice-champion at the 2020 Tokyo Games, to optimise two elements of the athletes’ prostheses: the sole, to enhance jumping performance, and the socket, to improve athlete comfort and reduce the risk of associated injuries. Today, Elodie is a research engineer at ENSTA Paris and continues her work by developing a tool to support medical practitioners in the design of lower-limb prostheses. Read more

Photo: IP Paris

DTU scan for a new prosthesis for the table tennis world champion

Para table tennis player Peter Rosenmeier’s prosthesis has ensured him many victories during his career that includes five Paralympic medals. The prosthesis lets him hold the bat and is handmade by a bandage specialist. If something happened to it, it would have major consequences. The DTU Physics team used CT X-ray imaging to help produce a new prosthesis that is a complete copy of Peter Rosenmeier’s original. Read more

Photo: DTU

EPFL: Smart wearable for in-motion knee diagnostics

Musculoskeletal disorders, like osteoarthritis, are one of the leading causes of knee pain and disability. The Lausanne-based start-up Sensemodi develops a smart wearable that allows to assess the health of joints while the joint is in motion – with benefits for both athletes and everyone else. Read more

Photo: Pixabay

Technion: Show me how you move and I'll tell you how to improve

In the US alone, each year over 200,000 injuries of the anterior cruciate ligament require medical attention, often resulting in surgery. About half of the operated patients later develop osteoarthritis. The Technion BioMotion Lab combines mechanics, biology, biochemistry, physiology, anatomy, and a psycho-social approach to analyse the motion of affected people and support treatment through wearable technologies. The same technologies help athletes analyse and improve their performance. Learn more in this video

Photo: Technion

TU/e start-up helps children, senior citizens and top footballers improve their cognitive abilities

What started as a challenge put forward by the current Dutch football champions has grown from a student project into a fully-fledged start-up. Aristotle Technologies develops, maintains, and sells software in the field of cognitive technology. People may need cognitive training for different reasons, be it because their abilities are insufficient for carrying out daily activities or because improved abilities are required by their profession. Read more

Photo: Source

Kinexon founders Dr. Oliver Trinchera (left) and Dr. Alexander Hüttenbrink

TUM: High-tech sensors for the European Championship ball

Kinexon, a spin-off from the Technical University of Munich (TUM), has equipped the European Championship soccer balls with high-precision sensors. The technology helps referees make difficult decisions. Kinexon specializes in the analysis and control of moving objects – whether in sports or in production. The technology is also used to analyse and automate the processes of entire factories. Read more

Photo: Kinexon