No traditional opening for the Olympic Games in Paris, but a spectacular fleet of 95 boats on the Seine with 10,500 athletes on board. It was a historic moment and a technical feat. The research group of Evert Lataire, Ghent University professor of Ships and Marine Technology, trained the captains for this unique boat parade.
Good news for sports fanatics, the summer of sports is not over yet! Our Belgian athletes will soon be competing at the Paralympic Games. Alumna Inge Bru, specialist in physical medicine and rehabilitation at Ghent University Hospital, accompanies them in Paris.
If the Belgian track cyclists win a medal at the upcoming Olympic Games, it will not only be the result of top performances but also of top research. In the Flemish Cycling Centre Eddy Merckx, a stone's throw from the Watersportbaan, a group of researchers from the IDLab of UGent-imec supports our track cyclists with the help of artificial intelligence (AI).
The doping controls at the upcoming Olympic and Paralympic Games will again have a Ghent connection. The doping control lab of Ghent University, DoCoLab for short, is sending a team of researchers to Paris to help check many thousands of samples. Peter Van Eenoo, head of the lab, professor and cycling fan, will be part of that team: "We won't have lots of free time, but I do hope to catch some of the cycling (laughs)."
The Doping Control Lab at Ghent University is an international authority in the field of doping research. The lab will be sending a delegation to the Olympics in Tokyo this year, just like it did during previous editions. But why is this necessary? Why aren’t athletes free to choose what they do with their own body? DoCoLab’s manager, prof. Peter Van Eenoo, sheds some light on these questions.
Combining high-level sport with studying: it is not easy. But some Ghent University students do it successfully. This year, no less than 8 students from Ghent University are going to the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Professors Jan Boone and Jan Bourgois are helping prepare Belgian rowers Tim Brys and Niels Van Zandweghe for the Olympic games in Tokyo. But what exactly are they doing, and what can we learn from research into elite sports? Also: why do the rowers wear Happy Sock-branded socks, and why is one allowed to eat sandwiches while the other isn’t?
