

Beijing National Olympic Stadium (PhotoTalk, iStockphoto)
Beijing National Olympic Stadium (PhotoTalk, iStockphoto)
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Learn about how STEM powers the Winter Olympics.
Did you know that when you watch an Olympic event, you’re watching science in action? The 2022 Winter Olympic Games are taking place in Beijing, China in February. The Paralympic Winter Games are also taking place in Beijing in March. How does science help athletes go for the gold?
Many winter sports take place on iced surfaces. These include speed skating, ice hockey, luge, bobsled, figure skating, curling and more! Did you know that chemistry allows athletes to skate across the ice? Water is made up of two hydrogen molecules and one oxygen molecule (H2O). The hydrogen end has a positive charge. The oxygen end has a negative charge. The opposite ends attract other water molecules and attach with hydrogen bonds.
As liquid water molecules move around, hydrogen bonds form and break. But as water cools, the molecules slow down. The hydrogen bonds remain attached, forming a crystal lattice. That’s what keeps the ice hard.
Shown are the molecular arrangements of water molecules in ice and in liquid water. Water molecules are shown as being made up of one red sphere connected to two smaller white spheres. The red spheres represent oxygen. The white spheres represent hydrogen. The ice crystal structure shows molecules arranged in a lattice structure made up of connected hexagons. The liquid structure shows a jumble of molecules rather an an organized structure.
However, this hard lattice only forms beneath the surface. On top, there’s still a thin layer called pre-melt that acts as a lubricant. This semi-frozen ice is perfect for gliding objects, like hockey pucks and skates!
Shown is Gillian Apps of Canada's women's hockey team competing for a hockey puck in front of the net. The opposing team's goalie and defenders are attempting to keep her from scoring a goal.
Every time you ski or watch downhill skiing, you’re seeing laws of physics at work. Have you ever seen a skier launching themselves from the starting gate at the top of the hill? This is Newton's Second Law of Motion. This law states that a force on an object produces an acceleration. In this case the object is the skier, and the force happens when they push off. Gravity then takes the skier down the hill.
Shown is an illustration of the principles of Newton's Second Law.
On the left is a woman wearing a green hoodie and orange pants. Her hair is up in a bun. She is looking down at an empty shopping cart. There are movement lines by her hands indicating that she has pushed the shopping cart and it is moving quickly away from her. This is meant to demonstrate that an object with a small mass will have a large acceleration with a given force.
Beside this image is an image of the same woman, only this time the grocery cart is full of food. The motion lines indicate that the cart is moving slowly away from her. This is meant to demonstrate that an object with a large mass will have a small acceleration with a given force.
Below the images is the heading "Law of Forces and Acceleration" and in a text box "The force experienced by an object is proportional to its mass times the acceleration."
Ever wonder why skiers hunch down while they ski? It has to do with air resistance. This is when the gas molecules that make up air slow down a moving object. The smaller you make yourself, the less air resistance there is. You may have felt air resistance while riding your bike.
Shown is Australian skier Shannon Dallas competing in the slalom event at the Vancouver Paralympic Games in 2010. The skier is sitting on a sit-ski. The skier is wearing a red helmet, a green long sleeve shirt, and a blue and green competition bib. He is sitting in a sit-ski. The sit-ski is a single ski attached to a black binding. Poles are attached to his arms. He is skiing through a gate, made up of a blue pole and a red pole.
Did you know?
Your body uses more oxygen when you exercise. Your lungs need to pull in up to 15 times more oxygen than at rest to keep up.
In addition to great physical feats from the athletes, there are also impressive feats of engineering that make these sports possible. In ski jumping, the ramps need to be perfectly shaped to maximize a skier’s ability to gain speed on the downhill ramp and then launch themselves into the air. Some fly as much as 100 m from the base of the jump! Similarly, for halfpipe snowboarding and skiing events, the height and angle of the pipe has a huge impact on the potential jump height of the athletes.
Shown is a snowboarding halfpipe event at the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics. A woman on a snowboard is in the air after doing a trick on the wall of a halfpipe. The woman has a white long sleeve shirt, black helmet, pink bib, black pants, and a black snowboard. The halfpipe is a curved wall of smooth white snow with a blue line at the top.
Athletes also use many other techniques to move more quickly in the air. Snowboarders, for example, will pump their legs to build up speed. Figure skaters will pull their arms in to speed up rotation, or spread them out to achieve the opposite. What other techniques can you spot when an athlete is defying gravity?
Shown is a figure skater spinning in the air at the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics. The figure skater has her legs crossed and her arms wrapped around her. The figure skater has brown, straight hair pulled into a pony tail with a red bow. She is wearing a red leotard with a skirt that is flaring out from the force of her spinning. She is landing on ice at an arena surrounded by a light blue wall.
Many of us watch Olympic athletes and think, “How do their bodies do that?” But there’s often a lot of psychology involved, too. Visualizing a positive outcome is a powerful way to improve sports performance. But that performance improves even more if you do the visualizing in context. One study compared skiers who visualized at the top of a slope right before a race to skiers who did not. The skiers who visualized at the top of the slope had faster times.
Visualizing an action helps athletes build the connections between neurons in their brains. This allows the neurons to fire more quickly, achieving better results.
Have you ever felt nervous or worried before a big competition, test, or performance? Athletes also experience a lot of stress during the Olympics. When you’re stressed, the hypothalamus region of your brain tells your body to react. Athletes train their brains, using strategies to remain calm and focused. They can do this because of the prefrontal cortex, which is the command centre of the brain. The prefrontal cortex tells the hypothalamus that you are not in danger. This helps to reduce an athlete’s stress response.
Shown is a cross-section of the brain showing the location of the prefrontal cortex and amygdala. A person's head is shown from the side. An illustration of the brain with coloured, labeled parts is shown. The prefrontal cortex is shown at the front of the brain, right behind the eyes. The hypothalamus is located in the centre of the brain, above the brain stem.
Even the toughest of athletes face mental health challenges. Recently, athletes have been speaking more openly on this topic. At the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, gold medalist Simone Biles chose to focus on her mental health. She decided not to compete in several events. Other athletes such as Naomi Osaka and Liz Cambage have also taken breaks from competing. Just like the rest of us, athletes need to make sure they are mentally and emotionally healthy. Taking care of themselves allows them to achieve greatness.
You don’t have to be an athlete to make a living from sports! Many other skill sets are needed to make events like the Olympics and Paralympics happen. Here are some examples of STEM careers in sports.
Sports physiotherapists help athletes recover from injuries. They need to have a good understanding of biology, anatomy, and physics. This allows them to diagnose and treat patients.
Dieticians help athletes understand how what they eat can support their performance. They need a strong understanding of nutrition and biology.
Ice technicians use math and physics to keep the ice ready for skating. They help to build and maintain ice rinks.
Ice Technicians use math and physics in order to keep the ice ready for hockey.
Researchers study how to make sports safer for everyone. They research everything from treating injuries to designing better helmets.
Associate Director, BC Injury Research and Prevention Unit
See Dr. Shelina Babul (she/her)'s profileHow fast can you react?
Olympic athletes need super-fast reflexes to excel at their sport. Test your own reaction time with this hands-on activity from Let’s Talk Science.
Why do ice rinks stay frozen?
Learn more about the science behind ice rinks in this article from Let’s Talk Science.
How much air do I breathe in?
A higher lung capacity can help athletes succeed. Measure your own air capacity with this hands-on activity from Let’s Talk Science.
How Fast Can a Skater Turn in the Speed Skating Short Track?
This article from Wired examines the physics behind the speed skating event and calculates what the maximum speed of a skater might be.
Science of the Winter Olympics - Downhill Science
This video (3:59) from the United States National Science Foundation examines the physics involved in the sport of downhill skiing.