The Impact of Skinsuit Zigzag Tape Turbulators on Speed Skating Performance
Source abstract
Abstract
At the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympic Games, zigzag tape was introduced on the race suit lower legs and cap of speed skaters. Application of these zigzag devices on live skaters and cylinders in the wind tunnel showed large improvements in the aerodynamic drag. These wind-tunnel results were unfortunately not widely published, and the impact of the zigzag strips in a real skating environment was never established. This paper aims to show the background of the application of the zigzag tape and to establish the impact it may have had on speed-skating performance. From comparisons of 5000 m races just before, during and just after the Nagano Olympics and an analysis of historic world record data of the 1500 m men’s speed skating, the impact of the zigzag tape turbulators on average lap times on 1500 and 5000 m races is calculated to be about 0.5 s.
Source: crossref · Quality: baseline
Research context
OpenAlex topics: Sports Performance and Training · Sports Dynamics and Biomechanics · Sports injuries and prevention
SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.
Affiliations
Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology, 2629HS Delft, The Netherlands
References (22)
Show source-provided references
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