An Ohio State professor has gotten the chance to be part of the Winter Olympics, by explaining the science of some of the Games’ popular sports.
Kathy Flores, an OSU associate professor in the College of Engineering, was approached by producers for NBC Learn, the educational arm of NBC News, to explain the science behind hockey, skiing and safety gear in a series of video segments. The clips are appearing on various NBC subsidiaries during the Olympics.
Flores, with her experience testing sporting equipment, accepted on the condition that the producers would send the necessary equipment. She and her students conducted tests on the equipment.
The skis sent were not Olympic quality, but the hockey equipment was high quality, she said.
“Once you cut it up and see what it’s made of and how it’s constructed, you are able to make a hypothesis why an athlete chooses a certain ski or stick.”
Flores and her students ran the tests in MacQuigg Laboratory’s high bay, where saws, mechanical test frames and optical microscopes were available.
After Flores was comfortable with the test results, NBC’s filming crew came to the high bay in early October, Flores said.
The “Science of Skiing” clip lasts more than five minutes, but the segment is sometimes cut to 30 seconds. In the clips, which feature Olympic skier and medalist Julia Mancuso, Flores explains how the fiberglass composition of the skis allows athletes to be both stable and flexible.
For Olympic skiers, where fractions of a second matter, “having the right ski can make a big difference,” Flores said.
Although she doesn’t have plans for more television segments, Flores said she would be a willing candidate — as long as she had adequate time to prepare.
“I don’t want to say anything dumb,” she said.
Flores has also been invited to contribute to an article on the Winter Olympics in a professional journal.
