In 2002, in Salt Lake City, USA, four Chinese athletes stepped on the Winter Paralympic games for the first time, which was the first time that a Chinese sports delegation participated in the Winter Paralympic Games. Twenty years later, at the 2022 Winter Paralympic Games in Beijing, a total of 96 Chinese Paralympic athletes received "admission tickets" to participate in all six major events. This is the largest delegation, the largest number of athletes and the most complete number of participating events since the mainland participated in the Winter Paralympic Games.
Behind these historic breakthroughs, the progress of winter sports research for the disabled in the mainland is indispensable. Create a "golden eye of fire" to track the trajectory of sports to improve the training effect, improve the competitive status of athletes through reasonable diet, and "one person, one policy" to customize personalized training programs for disabled athletes... A number of the latest scientific research achievements have inserted "invisible wings" for winter Paralympic athletes to compete for gold and silver on the field.
The "Golden Eye of Fire" assists the platoon to deploy the troops
In the National Paralympic Ice Sports Competition Training Hall in Shunyi District, 12 Paralympic ice hockey players are training, they are free to control the ice sled, flexibly move the ice hockey club left and right, fierce collision, fast passing, accurate shots... Behind the fierce ice hockey game, a pair of "fire eyes and golden eyes" has made a "great contribution" to the Preparation of the Chinese Paralympic Ice Hockey Team for the Beijing Winter Paralympic Games.
This pair of "fire-eyed golden eyes" is called "intelligent motion perception technology and auxiliary training system", which is led by Liu Siping, an associate researcher of the National Rail Transit Safety Assessment and Research Center of Beijing Jiaotong University, and the key project of "Science and Technology Winter Olympics" implemented and developed by Beijing Bingfeng Technology Co., Ltd. The system can use high-speed sliding in complex environments to accurately track tracking, for paralympic ice hockey, alpine skiing, speed skating and other daily training "advice".
"We have developed a set of high-speed gliding precision positioning algorithms to review the entire movement process of athletes." Liu Siping introduced that the project is aimed at the characteristics of high-speed sliding in ice hockey, and each athlete is positioned and monitored 100 times per second, with an accuracy of 5 to 10 centimeters. "This means that the real-time position, trajectory and other data of each athlete can be obtained efficiently and quickly to assist coaches in better 'platooning'."
Paralympic ice hockey is played by athletes with lower limb disabilities, who use skates instead of skates and sit on special seats on the sleds to perform actions such as hitting ice hockey. The team also designed the intelligent system for its athletic characteristics, "In daily training, each athlete wears a 'smart tag' and communicates in real time with the positioning base station installed in the venue through ultra-wideband technology to track and collect the trajectory of the athletes." Liu Siping revealed the secret.
"Intelligent Motion Perception Technology and Auxiliary Training System" serves the Chinese Paralympic Ice Hockey Team.
Raising their heads, four antennas are suspended in the four directions of the dome of the stadium, connecting several "black box"-like positioning base stations. "It took a lot of effort to install the base station alone, and the team members had to carry various tools to climb up to the roof of the house about 15 meters high, and hoist the base station on the roof with lines, brackets, etc." Liu Siping explained that such a large amount of effort is to give coaches faster and better "homework" - the positioning base station must be installed at a high place to effectively receive the signal sent by the smart tag, and the scientific research team will generate the training report with the fastest accurate data to assist the coach to optimize the training program.
The fixed position of the smart tag is also exquisite - the label of the bobsleigh project is fixed to the car, the label of the speed skating project is tied to the athlete's ankle, and the ice hockey project uses the helmet positioning label. The team designed a variety of labels such as wristband positioning, helmet positioning, and special positioning for snowmobiles according to different sports to meet the different application scenarios of winter sports.
Because paralympic ice hockey is played in a sitting position, the athletes are close to the ice surface, and the positioning signal is susceptible to the ice surface and ice sled, so the team chose to fix the label on the helmet located at the "highest place". Li Xuan, head of the Beijing Ice Feng Technology Project, explained: "This means that even if the 12 athletes on the ice hockey field are in the situation of mutual obstruction and a scuffle, the positioning signal can be sent out unhindered." ”
In addition to the precise positioning function, this intelligent motion perception system can also focus on monitoring the data of different projects. "In alpine skiing, the data when an athlete passes through the flag gate is the key to influencing the outcome of the competition." Li Xuan said that the system will collect data such as speed, distance and angle of alpine skiers and comprehensively plot them into a motion curve. "Coaches can use data to find out the reasons for the poor results of an athlete's training, such as too large an angle and distance when passing through a flag gate, resulting in excessive speed loss. This helps athletes pinpoint problems and propose improvements. ”
When it comes to the data collection of alpine skiing projects, Li Xuan frowned and used the three words "not easy" to describe. The signal on the mountain is not good, and a base station must be set at a high place before the signal can be received. "There's no way, we can only use the most 'primitive' method - climbing trees, tying the base station to the branches." Li Xuan said that the researchers climbed a tree about five meters high, carefully tied the base station to the branches with wire and tape, and connected the base stations together with network cables.
"At its coldest last winter, the temperature on the mountain was minus thirty degrees Celsius, the computer was black screened outside for a few minutes, and the drones were forced to land 'strike'." Li Xuan recalled that in those days, the team had to walk to and from the station and the test site halfway up the mountain every day, install base stations, test signals, and analyze data... "It is common for hands and feet to lose consciousness. However, at that time, everyone did not feel it too much, and their minds were all on 'catching' the key data of athletes passing through the flag gate. ”
In the field of this Winter Paralympic Games, the strength of the "Golden Eye of Fire" is being tested. "In the early training, our system was recognized by the coaching team, believing that the athletes could use it to perform at their best." Li Xuan said.
"Health housekeeper" nourishes the stomach and understands the brain
Mountains, ice, snow... Winter sports training and competition venues are mostly in low temperature or high altitude conditions, athletes in addition to the need to have excellent sports strength, with healthy living habits is also a magic weapon to win. Huang Xing, associate professor of the Capital Institute of Physical Education, and his team incarnated as "health stewards" who nourish the stomach and understand the brain, from the two aspects of training and diet, and formulated "health plans" and "nutrition recipes" for the teams of winter Paralympic cross-country skiing and wheelchair curling.
"A balanced diet gives athletes a pair of invisible wings." Huang Xing said that especially for athletes with disabilities, a healthy and good diet and living habits are crucial to the improvement of competitive performance and the adjustment of mentality. The project "Physical Characteristics of Athletes in Winter Paralympic Cross-Country Skiing, Biathlon and Wheelchair Curling, Key Technologies of Special Physical fitness and Psychological Training" led by the university's scientific research team has carried out scientific and technological research services for the wheelchair curling national team for three consecutive years.
Through long-term tracking and monitoring, the team found that because wheelchair curling athletes are in wheelchairs all year round, constipation often occurs, which affects training and is not conducive to physical health. "Sitting in a sitting position for a long time can lead to slower gastrointestinal peristalsis, slower metabolism, and the problem of being overweight is common." Through nutritional rationing, Huang Xing adjusted the dietary fiber and food source of athletes' meals.
"We teach athletes some fun and easy-to-understand tips to help them change their eating habits." For example, in order to allow wheelchair curlers to increase their intake of fresh vegetables and fruits, it is recommended that each meal be colored by no less than 5 colors. "We will also recommend adding some coarse grain staple foods to the back kitchen of the canteen, such as brown rice, sweet potatoes, corn, etc., to increase the intake of dietary fiber, improve constipation and other problems."
Calcium supplementation is also an important task for wheelchair curlers. "Because they have been training indoors without sunlight for a long time, the ice environment is relatively cold, and the athletes' limbs are prone to cramps due to calcium deficiency, which affects training." Huang Xing told athletes at the nutrition lecture to popularize the knowledge of nutrients needed by the human body, suggesting that they increase their calcium intake through diet and often bask in the sun.
When the gums bleed, they replace the stir-fried vegetables with cold dishes that are hot and deheated; feel anxious before the game, eat more sleep-assisting foods for dinner, and then sleep comfortably; after a long period of high-intensity training, "arrange" the sports drinks containing electrolytes... Huang Xing's team gives personalized nutritional advice according to the different situations of each athlete at each stage. To her relief, athletes have improved to varying degrees in terms of physical fitness, mentality, and health.
In winter sports, the problem of "hydration" is easily overlooked. "After a long period of high-intensity exercise, it is necessary to supplement sports drinks containing electrolytes such as sodium ions and avoid drinking a lot of white water." Huang Xing said that through physical monitoring, the team found that the athletes' fluid loss at high altitudes was 3 to 4 times that of the plains. "This means that to increase the scientific rehydration of athletes in sports such as alpine skiing, it must reach 1.2 to 1.7 liters per day."
The relationship between drinking water and exercising time is also exquisite: less than half an hour of exercise does not require rehydration; exercise lasts about an hour, requiring a small number of multiple hydration; when the exercise time exceeds 60 minutes, you have to drink sports drinks containing sugar and electrolytes. "Athletes are often heard exclaiming: 'There are so many doorways to drinking water'!" Huang Xing said that scientific and effective rehydration can not only help athletes relieve fatigue and increase endurance, but also accelerate the body's metabolism and improve athletic ability.
"I've always believed that a reasonable diet is a good doctor, and it's cool to promote competitive ability through scientific diet." Mr. Huang said his father was a doctor and often talked to her about typical illnesses. As a result, she can empathize with the pain of the disease. In her view, it is an important mission to engage in sports scientific research and make sports more scientific and healthy through nutrition monitoring and other methods.
Huang Xing (first from right) gives a nutrition lecture to athletes.
In addition to the nutrition housekeeper, Huang Xing's team also has an identity - fatigue tester. "Curling, also known as 'chess on ice,' is a double competition of mental and physical strength." Huang Xing said that especially for athletes with disabilities, more difficulties need to be overcome than healthy people. "After the competition, some athletes feel very tired, and some will say 'I can, no problem'. Do you want to continue training? Data to speak for itself. Team member Meng Siyu said.
Based on the "central fatigue detection system", the team keenly and accurately judged whether the athlete was in a state of fatigue and whether they needed to rest, and "read" the athlete's brain. "This not only helps coaches scientifically arrange training time and develop training plans, but also adjusts and optimizes the physical functions of athletes, which is conducive to good health."
"One person, one policy" customized training program
"The foundation of the disabled ice and snow sports in our country is indeed thinner." As an expert who has undertaken both the research of assistive devices for the disabled and the scientific research experience of sports science projects, Ji Linhong, director of the Intelligent and Biomechanical Research Office of Tsinghua University, admitted that although the mainland's sports science and technology has achieved rapid development in recent years, the vast majority of research focuses on the sports science of healthy people, and the research direction related to winter sports for the disabled is weak.
Select outstanding athletes, develop scientific training programs, create competitive aids... Since October 2018, Ji Linhong has led the scientific research team to undertake the key special project of the national key research and development plan "Science and Technology Winter Olympics" and the key special project of "Key Technologies for Improving the Athletic Performance of Winter Paralympic Athletes", "The goals and directions of the plan are clear, as for the difficulties encountered in the process of promotion, we are doing the middle school." ”
At the Beijing Winter Paralympic Games, Professor Ji Linhong carried out equipment maintenance for biathlon athletes in the Mainland Winter Paralympic Games.
In the training team, every disabled athlete cherishes this hard-won opportunity and never spares the sweat of training. However, many disabled athletes are "halfway out of the house", lack of scientific understanding of the human body structure, basic laws of exercise and other issues, there are bad training habits, and often have low back pain, back pain and other discomforts after training. At first, the research team thought that this was caused by insufficient relaxation stretching or medical problems, but after detailed research, Ji Linhong found that athletes with limb disabilities, especially unilateral amputees, are accustomed to unilateral force, and it is easy to have asymmetry of core muscle strength. If it is not corrected for a long time, it will lead to secondary injuries such as pelvic and scapular instability, and even aggravate the degree of disability.
"It makes us soberly aware of how special the tasks and services we undertake are." Together with the Institute of Sports Science of the General Administration of Sport of the People's Republic of China, the Shanghai Institute of Sport and other units, the Team of Ji Linhong, based on the sports scientific research achievements of the Healthy People and the Summer Paralympic Games, has gradually improved the scientific training system suitable for winter Paralympic athletes.
For able-bodied athletes participating in the same project, there is usually little difference in physical fitness and basic sports for daily training, but even if disabled athletes are in the same project, the training program must be "one person, one policy". "The reason is simple, you can't get an athlete with an amputee's left arm to do push-ups." Ji Linhong said that developing a personalized training plan and equipping it with appropriate assistive devices can help athletes with disabilities effectively improve their performance.
"To be scientific, the first thing is to quantify." Ji Linhong said that in the process of more than three years of scientific research, the team built a set of digital monitoring system platform, daily recording of athletes' physiological parameters, training intensity, technical actions and other information, established a scientific data model, and adjusted the training program accordingly, so that athletes can play their own potential at the same time, to avoid fatigue and even injury.
Assistive devices are a necessity for almost every athlete with disabilities. According to the differences in the competition and the degree of disability, the structure and use of the assistive devices required by athletes are also different. For example, when skiing cross-country, athletes with lower limb amputations usually choose to kneel on the ski rack, and athletes with polio mostly use a sitting position. Due to differences in posture and power mode, each athlete's snow frame naturally needs to be personalized design, from the overall material and structure of the snow frame to the comfort of an ankle and knee prosthetic interface, every detail will directly affect the athlete's competitive level, and it must be adjusted according to the laws of sports mechanics.
However, the task is urgent, and the sample is repeatedly produced and iterated and then tested in the field, which is not allowed in time. As a result, the training and testing of the skiing process were "moved" indoors, and the team established a test system to monitor the skiers' poles, the force of the gliding process and the posture of the action. Using the ejection technology used in the take-off of the aircraft carrier, after the athlete slides out forcefully, the snowboard equipped with sensors is quickly returned to position, and the "taxi" can be realized in the same place, truly simulating the athlete's pole action and body posture in the snow field. Through the sensor, the training system can monitor and record the strength and angle of the pole in real time, judge whether the parameters and design details of the ski rack of the sitting athlete meet the needs of the competition, and whether the movements and skills need to be further optimized.
Kung Fu pays off. On March 6, Zheng Peng won the men's long distance (sitting) competition in cross-country skiing at the Beijing Winter Paralympic Games, the first gold medal won by a Chinese athlete in the Paralympic cross-country skiing event.
"We all want to raise the flag and play the national anthem on the field, but the Winter Paralympic Games are more on the spiritual level, and paralympic athletes show a style that transcends physical obstacles." Ji Linhong said that although the help of science and technology is an important part of competitive sports, what is more critical is that athletes, coaches and security teams work together, sweat and skills are compatible, in order to achieve rapid improvement in performance. Researchers do not unilaterally help athletes with disabilities, but work with them.
Some paraplegic athletes are insensitive to the perception of cold in their legs, and are prone to frostbite in winter outdoor competitions without knowing it, so the team has developed thermal protective gear to maintain physical sensation for athletes and maintain a comfortable and constant temperature. Snowboarding project speed, amputees need to be equipped with ski prosthetics to achieve flexible movements and competitive postures, the team designed the first domestic ski prosthesis to meet the needs of snowboarding, but also developed a number of training devices to enhance special capabilities, comprehensively improve the competitive performance of amputees.
Ji Linhong said that when providing scientific and technological services for disabled athletes, it is necessary to focus on their actual difficulties and needs, "such as the asymmetry of force caused by unilateral limb loss, which will have a negative impact on the core strength, before that, perhaps disabled friends themselves did not realize that this is a problem." "Science and technology to help the disabled" work should form a cognition and design concept of serving the disabled, use science and technology to better realize the compensation of functions, and help the disabled to better integrate into society.