UNews - Olympics

New animal behaviour study lends insight to performance limits of Olympic athletes

trevor.kenney — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 14:54:55 +0000

As Olympians test the limits of their performance at the 2024 Paris Olympics, a ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge animal behaviour researcher has co-authored a paper that is unlocking the way scientists can measure performance constraints — the factors that place limits on just how far and fast we can physically perform.

Dr. David Logue in ULethbridge’s Department of Psychology and co-author Dr. Tyler Bonnell recently published the paper, Skewed performance distributions as evidence of motor constraint in sports and animal displays, in Royal Society Open Science. Logue, in his Birdsong Lab, studies birds to learn about the evolution of interactive communication. From songs to mating displays, he has travelled the world studying how birds communicate with one another and what factors influence their behaviours and ultimately lead to their successes or failures.

This novel mathematical approach will benefit evolutionary biology and could also be utilized in physiology and sport.

In seeking a better way to identify, characterize and compare performance constraints in animal behaviour, the two wondered if human sport was the perfect forum to test a new mathematical approach to quantifying whether a bird was really “trying” their best while performing their songs and what constraints might most influence their behaviour.

“We want to know for a certain behaviour if an animal is going up to their limit against a certain constraint, but we can’t ask a bird if they are trying their best,” says Logue. “So, we looked to high performance athletes to test our theory, because we know if we ask someone like Usain Bolt, for example, are you running as fast as you can, the answer will be “yes”, and we believe him because he is motivated — by rewards like fame and money — to reach his limit.”

Their goal was to evaluate and expand the toolkit for the analysis of performance constraints. Having reviewed existing methods, they’d found that none were able to estimate constraints with data from one behavioural trait in one population. The math is fairly involved but in simple terms, they developed a formula that can be applied to multiple data sets that yields predictable results — in other words it works — showing that people, athletes and birds’ performances skew away from the constraint they are facing.

What is skew? Many distributions, like height or weight, are shaped like a bell curve, with a few extremes and most of the data showing somewhere in the middle. But when examining constrained performance (like running speed, or jump height), scientists don’t see a normal bell curve. Everyone is trying to perform at the highest level possible, but constraints, like limits to how fast their muscles can contract, prevent them from performing any higher. As such, values are bunched on the constrained side of the distribution. Statisticians call this a skewed distribution.

“It’s a statistical method to actually measure what the constraint is, like a signature of limitation, and then we’re able to use math to extract that and measure it,” explains Logue. “In science, we always need to measure stuff. So, this is a way of measuring things, and it's a particularly useful way of measuring because you only need to look at one variable.”

Logue says it was satisfying to apply their theory in numerous settings. They used data from Olympic athletes over multiple Games, testing it on throwing distances, jump distances and race times. They then applied it to baseball pitch speeds and even three-point shooting in basketball and each time, the math held up. And while he’s excited to now use it in the realm of evolutionary biology, they’ve opened the door to the approach having applications in multiple other domains, such as physiology and sport.

“Suppose that you wanted to test different training regimens with your athletes, or different nutrition regimens or different equipment. We could see if the constraint changes based on whether they wear these shoes or those shoes, whether they train like this or that. You could test multiple variables,” says Logue.

He says the next step for the study is to make it more accessible to those who might not be keen on the intricacies of the math needed to be applied.

“What we may be doing is writing a package for the programming language to where it’s more of a plug-and-play, off-the-shelf product you just apply to your data sets, as opposed to really having to understand the math and the hard-core coding end of it,” says Logue. “It’s exciting for me because we had this idea and now, we’ve shown it works, which is great from an animal behaviour angle, and if it gets adopted by sports science, that would be killer because I love that area too.”

Olympic dreams realized for Bosch and Crozon

trevor.kenney — Fri, 05 Jul 2024 14:50:42 +0000

Basketball players part of large ULethbridge contingent headed to Paris Olympics

Could it really happen any other way? Kacie Bosch (BA ’20) and Paige Crozon punched their ticket to the Paris Olympics in the most dramatic of ways, winning the bronze medal match in the final 3x3 women’s basketball Olympic qualifying tournament. After years of crossing the globe, jumping through qualifying hoops and racking up win after win as the world’s top-rated 3x3 team, they are Paris bound.

“It doesn’t really feel real yet,” says Crozon, who along with Bosch is an assistant coach for the Pronghorns women’s basketball team. “We’ve been preparing the last five years for this, just hoping and wishing we’d get this opportunity. I’m so proud of our team and the resilience we showed to even get to this point, and we are honoured to play amongst these women in Paris.”

Kacie Bosch, left, and Paige Crozon, middle, celebrate with teammates Michelle and Katherine Plouffe after they clinched their spot in the Paris Olympics.

The duo, who will compete alongside Olympic veterans Michelle and Katherine Plouffe, earned their spot in Paris the hard way. They fell one win short at an Olympic qualifying event in Japan, then needed a top-three finish in Hungary to secure their Olympic berth, only to lose a semifinal game to Spain on a fluke shot in the last second. It set up a winner-take-all match against the home Hungary side, and while they easily dispatched the hosts, the adversity they faced is seen as welcome experience.

“That loss to Australia in Japan was devastating for our group and we were really disheartened. We wanted to come home, come back to our families and have more time to train for Paris and instead we had four days at home and it was back on the road for another qualifier,” says Crozon.

Bosch says the experience of the Plouffe twins guided their emotions through the nerve-wracking final qualifying tournament. They also refocused their sights on what truly guides their success — having fun.

“The pressure was on, and we started to focus on the outside noise, like who was refereeing and what might happen if we lost and that’s not good for us,” says Bosch. “That’s not how we play our best ball. When we have joy, when we’re laughing and joking before we run on the court, that’s what makes us play well.”

With their spot now secure, the focus is on gearing up for Paris. The Olympics begin July 24, with the 3x3 basketball tourney running July 30 through Aug. 5. While Bosch rehabilitates a litany of knee injuries, Crozon is playing with Canada on the FIBA professional circuit. The group will reconvene in Toronto for a short training camp and head to Paris a week before their Olympic opener.

“I’m a very emotional person, so I’m already picturing us wearing our Canada jerseys and competing for our country,” says Bosch. “It’s such a huge tournament and to have friends and family there who have been supporting me since the start of my career is going to be amazing. It’s a full-circle moment — everybody has worked so hard to get to this point, and I’m so thankful for all the people behind the scenes who have supported and pushed and been practice players for us and sacrificed their time. Putting that jersey on is just an amalgamation of everybody’s efforts.”

Crozon eyes the opportunity with gratitude and joy.

“To share this with all the individuals who have helped us get to this point is something I’m really looking forward to,” she says. “It will be a big stage, but it doesn’t change why I play basketball because I just love to play. I feel free and so much joy playing basketball, so I don’t think the stage matters, I’m just excited to have another opportunity to play the game I love with everybody I care about.”

As far as who they will meet in Paris, there are no surprises. All the world’s best teams will be there, and they have faced each other many times on the professional circuit. They fear nobody.

“We’ve faced every team multiple times in games that have come down to the last few seconds, overtime games, we’ve gone through the gauntlet,” says Bosch. “All the things we’ve had to overcome, that’s our advantage going into Paris.”

Pronghorns in Paris

Pronghorns track coach Larry Steinke (BA ’94) has been running the most prominent throws program in U SPORTS for years and has been consistently involved with Canada's elite athletes at the international level. He is excited to make his sixth Olympic appearance and says this may prove to be the most memorable yet.

“It’s always an honour to represent Canada at the international level. This one will be unique, as each one is, but we go in with the best Team Canada we have ever had in track and field, including six world champions. Without a doubt it will be a special Olympics in that regard,” says Steinke, who will serve as Team Coach.

Another team member serving as mission staff is Ryan Sommer (BA '16) who competed for Steinke as a shot put specialist for the Horns from 2011-2016. After leaving ULethbridge, he turned his sights to bobsled and represented Canada at the 2022 Beijing Olympics where he won bronze in the four-man bobsled. Meanwhile, Mike Tamura (BA), who competed for the Horns in judo in the 1980s, will serve as Judo sport director in Paris.

As well, former Pronghorns swimmer Apollo Hess and cyclist Sarah Orban (BA ’18) will compete for Canada in Paris.

Hess swam for the Horns for two seasons, winning gold in the 200-metre and 50-metre breaststroke at the 2022 U SPORTS Championships where he was named U SPORTS Rookie of the Year. After another outstanding 2023 season, he moved to Toronto to join the High Performance Centre. Hess is a member of the Kainai Nation, and the first Blood Tribe member and swimmer of Indigenous descent to participate in the Olympics.

Orban played Horns women’s soccer and ran track while at ULethbridge. In 2017, she participated in the RBC Training Ground program and won the Alberta Regional Final, sparking interest from the national skeleton and cycling teams. She chose to focus on cycling and was named to the national team 18 months later. She won team sprint gold at the 2022 Commonwealth Games and bronze at the 2023 Pan American Games. Orban graduated with a double major in kinesiology and psychology.

See this story to learn about Kacie Bosch's journey as a student in the Faculty of Education

Olympic Competition Schedule (All times MDT)

Kacie Bosch & Paige Crozon (Women's 3X3 Basketball)

Tuesday, July 30 — 10 a.m. vs. Australia
Wednesday, July 31 — 10 a.m. vs. China
Thursday, Aug. 1 — 1:30 a.m. vs. Germany
Thursday, Aug. 1 — 2 p.m. vs. France
Friday, Aug. 2 — 10 a.m. vs. USA
Friday, Aug. 2 — 1 p.m. vs. Spain
Saturday, Aug. 3 — 9:30 a.m. vs. Azerbaijan
Monday, Aug. 5 — Playoffs (TBD)

Apollo Hess (Men's Swimming, 4x100-metre medley relay)

Friday, Aug. 2 — 3 a.m. (Heats)
Saturday, Aug. 3 — 3 a.m. (Heats)
Sunday, Aug. 4 — Finals (TBD)

Sarah Orban (Women's Team Sprint Track Cycling)

Monday, Aug. 5 — 9 a.m. (Qualifying)
Monday, Aug. 5 — 10:55 a.m. (First Round)
Monday, Aug. 5 — Finals (TBD)

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New animal behaviour study lends insight to performance limits of Olympic athletes

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