Olympic gold medals are often won by tenths of a second. Indeed a tenth of a second can make the difference between gold, or, no medal at all. In the chase to find that all important tenth, Olympic performance directors are now turning their attentions towards the benefits that can be realised through the use of cutting edge technologies such as Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). Although the use of CFD is well established within motorsport, and Americas Cup Yacht racing, other elite sports are only now beginning to wake up to its potential. This potential has been recognised within the British Olympic camp. The Sports Engineering Research Group (SERG) at The University of Sheffield has been supporting two teams in preparation for Athens 2004. Extensive work has been performed for the British Cycling Federation, which made use of SERG`s in-house non-contact laser scanning facilities. The accuracy of CFD is highly dependant upon the geometrical accuracy of the assembled model. SERG`s scanning capabilities enable the generation of these highly detailed and accurate models. SERG isalso already involved in the support of teams at future Olympic campaigns and athletes heading for the Turin 2006 Winter Olympics. This presentation aims to highlight a selection of the work which SERG has been involved in, and to demonstrate the benefits which CFD can bring to Olympic sport.
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