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businesswoman and a popular public speaker. make a significant contribution to coaching in this
Among her many endeavors, she is a member area.”
of Israel’s Olympic Committee and its Sports
Academy Committee Chair. “Collaborating with the Technion Donors Needed
goes hand in hand with setting higher goals for
ourselves,” she says. “Until now, we wanted to The Center’s small management team includes
win one or two medals in the Olympic Games.
Now we want to win more, and for that we have Prof. Wolf, Epstein, and Talmon, who are working
to focus on what we need to improve and get
measurable results. This is a long-term process. with severely limited resources. In fact, official
Sports are, quite literally, an exercise in long-
distance running, and we estimate that we’ll funding amounts to zero NIS. “To establish the
see the fruits of this effort in the next Summer
Olympics, the 2024 Games in Paris. But it will Center and launch its activity, both partners—the
only happen if we’re patient, determined, and
persistent.” Olympic Committee and the Technion—have
And Epstein clarifies: “It’s not like a cake,
where you put in the ingredients, bake in the provided a significant investment of researchers’
right oven at the appropriate temperature, and
obtain a perfect result. Numerous factors and time and expertise, physical space and
variables affect an athlete contending for a
medal. Sometimes a few hundredths of a second facilities,” says Wolf. “Our ongoing work is funded
separate a medal from the fourth or fifth place,
so we cannot unequivocally determine that this by donations; some studies are financed ad-
collaboration will bring more medals. But we can
commit to provide coaches with more accurate hoc by donors or research funds. Our situation
data and to optimize the training practices ahead
of major competitions. To get more medals, we is unlike that of Europe or in the U.S., where
will need many more variables and activities, and
greater resources.” enormous funds are channeled into sports.” And
Last May, the Technion held the Center’s first
scientific conference, as part of the annual he adds, “We are now seeking funding for the
Belfer Symposium, attended by senior coaches,
scientists and researchers, members of the sports Center to enable it to realize its full
tech industry, and guest speakers from the U.S.
and the U.K. The keynote speakers, Dr. Alison potential.”
Sheets, a senior biomechanics researcher at
Nike, and Prof. Yannis Pitsiladis of the University Despite the financial constraints, the Center has
of Brighton, discussed the scientific and
technological challenges of competitive sports the advantage of being a unique undertaking.
and the attempt to complete a marathon in under
two hours. The conference concluded with Israel’s According to Prof. Wolf, “Of course, we’re not
Olympic coaches presenting challenges from
the field to the Center’s scientists. “Since this is reinventing the wheel, with similar centers in
a new field,” says Epstein, “there is no existing
information; if we work well, we may be able to Germany, Italy, the U.S., and elsewhere. But the
Israeli Center is different as we have an academic
institution fully committed to the research and
everything is done under one roof. The Technion’s
research labs are among the world’s best, the
drawback being that our researchers are not
exclusively working on this, which may actually
prove to be an advantage.”
In conclusion, Arad says, “Competitive sports
around the world rely on athletes’ talent, hard
work, discipline, and mental stamina. But by
now, we are also well aware of the special
contribution that task-specific technologies can
make to improving performance. In the end,
winning an Olympic medal means bringing in
the ‘X factor’ on a given day at the moment of
truth. If we could use technology to augment
our athletes’ incredibly hard work and give
them some relative or absolute advantage—that
would mean we’ve succeeded in doing what we
set out to achieve.”
24 | MEgazine | Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
