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PressClub USA · Article.
Fact Sheet: BMW Team USA Sponsorship: Driving Athlete Performance
Tue Oct 29 16:42:00 CET 2013 Press Release
As part of its sponsorship commitment, BMW is applying its resources and technologies to advance the training and performance goals of Team USA. The following represent projects within BMW’s technology transfer initiative that have been developed in response to performance and real-time data needs identified by USA Bobsled and Skeleton Foundation, USA Track & Field and USA Swimming.
Driving Athlete Performance
As part of its sponsorship commitment, BMW is applying its resources and technologies to advance the training and performance goals of Team USA.
The following represent projects within BMW’s technology transfer initiative that have been developed in response to performance and real-time data needs identified by USA Bobsled and Skeleton Foundation, USA Track & Field and USA Swimming.
BMW Bobsled Redevelopment – USA Bobsled and Skeleton Federation
After more than two years in development, BMW, in collaboration with USA Bobsled and Skeleton Federation, has completed its third technology transfer project with the complete redesign and development of a new two-man bobsled. The completion of the project replaces a 20-year-old platform currently in use by the athletes of Team USA, which has not won Olympic gold in the two-man bobsled since 1936.
To help ensure the caliber of Team USA’s sleds match the world-class talent of its athletes in the lead up to the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games, BMW has applied a process similar to its vehicle development, most significantly the application of BMW EfficientDynamics, using lightweight materials like carbon fiber to optimize the sled’s weight placement to distribute and balance the regulation-required weight.
BMW’s approach to this project has centered on delivering a world-class vehicle that reflects the experience and extreme conditions bobsled athletes face. Design inspiration was influenced by a first-hand experience in a bobsled, a reverence for the speed and extreme forces in Olympic bobsledding, and a desire to equip Team USA with the very best equipment.
In designing the two-man sled with these objectives in mind, BMW’s process reevaluated the complete vehicle system: cowling aerodynamics and construction, chassis and steering geometries, athlete fitment and integration were all critical focal points. Computer aided modeling, computational fluid dynamics (CFD), full size wind tunnel testing, on track testing, and athlete scannings were all tools in BMW’s
development approach.
BMW Velocity Measurement System – USA Track & Field
BMW’s first technology transfer project was a velocity measurement system created in collaboration with sports scientists at the USOC and USA Track & Field. Developed at the BMW Group Technology Office USA in Mountain View, Calif., the system captures an athlete in motion and automatically calculates and delivers performance metrics for coaches to use in training long jumpers. By measuring and providing real-time analysis of three key parameters in the execution of a long jump – horizontal approach velocity, vertical take-off velocity and take-off angle – the system is completely unique in its offering to coaches and athletes in training scenarios.
The technology is currently a permanent fixture at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, Calif.
BMW Motion Tracking System – USA Swimming
BMW has collaborated with the high performance team at USA Swimming on a motion tracking system that analyzes a swimmer’s dolphin kick within the allowed 15 meters of underwater swimming and provides quantitative performance data to coaches. Ricky Berens, two-time Olympic gold medalist, tested the system during the development process.
BMW’s motion tracking system tracks six points on the swimmer’s body – wrists, shoulders, hips, knees, ankles and toes – as well as kick depth and rate, allowing coaches to pinpoint the performance attributes of specific parts of the body and to see how well all parts are working together to increase speed.
This technology is the first of its kind to provide quantitative data analysis of a swimmer’s movements in the water, which USA Swimming intends to apply in the evaluation of how major and minor adjustments in form and technique improve a swimmer’s dolphin kick at starts and turns, where a race can be won or lost.
The technology is currently a permanent fixture at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo.
BMW Team USA Sponsorship
BMW Group (including BMW, MINI and BMW Motorrad) is the Official Mobility Partner of the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Teams through 2016. BMW Group is also the Official Mobility Partner of four National Governing Bodies (NGBs) – USA Swimming, USA Track & Field, USA Bobsled & Skeleton and US Speedskating.
BMW Group also supports the National Olympic Committees of Austria, Canada, China, and France and will lend its support to Olympic and Paralympic athletes and hopefuls in the U.S., Canada and France. BMW Group is also a partner of the German Bobsleigh and Sled Sports Federation (BSD).
Contacts:
Stacy Morris
Corporate Communications Manager, Marketing & Culture
BMW of North America, LLC
(201) 370.5134/stacy.morris@bmwna.com
Dianna Kraus
FleishmanHillard
(415) 318.4182/dianna.kraus@fleishman.com
Journalist note: Information and visual assets about BMW Group, its U.S. Olympic
partnership and its products in the US are available to journalists online at
www.bmwusa.com/teamusa and www.bmwusanews.com.
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