Winter athletes are used to the cold, and this year’s Beijing Olympics have been especially frosty. But the US Ski Team has a new tool for keeping warm while training: battery-powered, heated shorts.
US Olympic skiers wear the specially-designed, heated shorts during practice runs.
Ryan Mooney / University of Oregon
The gear was designed by graduate students at the University of Oregon’s Sports Product Management Program.
Lauren Samuels is one of the students and a former member of the US Ski Team. She told Science Friday that the idea started when the team came to the students with an idea for a heated jacket or vest.
“From my experience, the legs are what’s most important to our performance,” Samuels said. And, when she talked to a current team member, she heard the same thing.
“The most important part of his body was his legs and he needed to keep those warm in order to stay focused and perform at his best,” she said. “So we pivoted and went towards shorts.”
The heated shorts use a lithium-ion battery, and the heat is conducted through the thread that’s used to sew them together.
The concept is similar to sleeves designed for baseball pitchers by Innovative Sports in Eugene. Pitchers and skiers have the same problem - muscles that cool down too much during resting periods.
“Leading up to the race, it was kind of a key time, where skiers were losing a lot of heat,” said co-designer Josh Daniel. Athletes were doing jumping jacks, and running in place, trying to stay warm in the very cold temperatures.
“We felt like there could be a performance benefit,” by regulating body temperature, Daniel said.
“You could wear them until 30 seconds before you race,” Samuels said. That allows the muscles to stay warm, right up to the competition.
But skiers won’t be wearing them during the race. “Hundredths of a second really can make or break your day,” Samuels said. “Having an additional layer, even if it’s only a couple of millimeters thick, isn’t worth it for these athletes.”
For more on this story, and to hear the interview with Lauren Samuels and Josh Daniel, go to ScienceFriday.com.
