University Of Portsmouth Opens New Sports Science Centre To Train Athletes For Beijing Olympics

Main Category: Sports Medicine / Fitness
Article Date: 08 Mar 2007 - 8:00 PDT

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The University of Portsmouth has opened a new high-tech sports science centre that will be used to prepare elite athletes for the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2012 London Olympics.

The multimillion pound research and teaching facility - The Spinnaker Building - houses several world class laboratories including two high specification climatic chambers (hot and cold), an immersion facility, a biomechanics laboratory and a state-of-the-art swimming flume.

The facility will work with UK Sport to run scientific tests and prepare athletes from the Great Britain Cycling and UK Triathlon teams for the Beijing Olympics and London 2012. The University's sports scientists are also doing work across a range of industries and sectors including the oil and energy industry and the military.

The Spinnaker Building's heat acclimation laboratory has been accredited by the British Olympic Medical Centre (BOMC) and will be used by British athletes to simulate conditions in Beijing where the temperature is expected to be around 30C with 70 per cent humidity.

Alun Rees, Head of Sport and Exercise Science, said: "These world class facilities will help keep us on the leading edge of teaching, research and sports science support. The expertise and facilities are a perfect match - leading sport science academics using the best that technology has to offer."

The new facility was officially opened by famed arctic explorer and leading expert on human health under extreme conditions Dr Mike Stroud OBE.

Dr Stroud said: "Understanding how human physiology works in difficult conditions is essential if people are to live and work safely and are at their best in jobs which create demanding environments or in the hostile regions of our planet. In a future of climatic uncertainties and even the possibility of travel to other worlds, it is likely to be critical."

University of Portsmouth
http://www.port.ac.uk