Pine in the Alpine?

Downhill skiers will undergo over 3.5G’s of acceleration throughout the turns. Impressive, but what’s amazing is the skies under their feet. Not only must the skies support over 600 lbs of force but must be flexible enough to carve through the turns.

So what are the magic materials that power these next generation super skies? Carbon composite leading edges? Aerogel cores? Nope, amazingly enough the highest performing skies are composed of plain old fiber glass, wood, and some laminated metals. While the construction is anything but simple, spruce, fir and other woods are at the heart of these high performance skies. Gold metal for the Material Engineers!

90 KPH on ¼” of Steel

The unfortunate accident that caused the death of Georgian Olympian Nodar Kumaritashvili’s has put the Luge in the forfront of these Olympics games. At the heart of this event is the sled, which is custom built for each rider. So exacting is the aerodynamic science that teams will often go to high-performance automobile manufacturers like BMW and Porsche to improve and tweak the aerodynamics of the sled. Primarily constructed of steel and fiberglass, the sleds balance flexibility for control and stiffness for strength.

No less high-tech are the helmets, suits, gloves, and boots, each designed to minimize air resistance and optimize body position… All while protecting the rider while they and their sleds are reaching over 90 kilometers per hour!

Another gold goes out to the Aerodynamists

A lot of attention is spent on the athletes, but where would the games be an army of engineers designing skies, sleds, and suits to bring out the best of those athletes? I’m pretty sure I could be an Olympic athlete too… all I need is the right equipment… (insert curling joke here.)