Olympic Results Visualization

In recent months I have been using Microsoft Power BI to develop dashboards to present data in graphical format and analyse data gathered during the day to day activities in my workplace. This product is absolutely amazing (also because it is free!) and it has really facilitated the way I can put together dynamic reports and share data with my staff as well as other colleagues and coaches.

If you want to know more about Power BI you can go to this weblink and also you can have a look at the demo video to understand the capabilities.

I am following the Olympics from a distance and I am very interested in the results just like anybody involved in Olympic Sports. Most of all, I like to track the medal table and understand more about who is winning what medal and how countries are doing in various sports. Considering the fact that there are many data repositories on the internet to have such information, I have developed a Power BI dashboard which collects live data and can visualise them in a simple way. I would like to share this dashboard with the readers and will continue to develop it in order to conduct a detailed analysis of the medal table once the Olympics are over.

The dashboard is interactive and you can click and expand graphs as well as change the visualisations. I hope you will like it.

Here is the dashboard:



Alternatively, if you cannot access it via this blog, just click on THIS link and you should be able to view it.

65 reasons to be happy!

I am finally back in London after the Olympics and the well deserved rest. It’s been an amazing few months. I did not have much time to write on the blog and I promise to keep it up to date more in the future. I was busy working for our greatest team: Team GB. The last few months of preparation have been frantic and culminated with an incredible Olympiad in which Team GB won 65 medals finishing with an historical 3rd place in the medal table after the superpowers China and USA.

This is the result of 4 years of incredible dedication not only by our athletes but also, coaches, administrators, science and medicine support and lots of people who contributed to the success of the team. The public was amazing, every venue had such a brilliant atmosphere and the support we all received was truly inspirational. It was for me a privilege and an honour to work with such a talented group of people in the last few years and with amazing support teams during the games. I will cherish the memories for years to come. The British sporting system has changed enormously since I arrived in the UK in 2001 and I can say that there is an exciting scientific and coaching community which is envied by the rest of the World.

Success in sport is due to many aspects: funding, environment, coaching, organisations structures, science and medicine, engineering, vision and belief that miracles happen to people who believe in them. GB was10th in the medal table with 30 medals in Athens in 2004 and is now in the top 3, well done everyone involved in Olympic Sports in the UK. 500 athletes, 50 million strong, you all are part of our greatest team!

I will write more about the Olympics in the next few weeks, I am still going through some data and will write more about what I have seen and what the trends are. Also I will keep writing about science in sport.

Winning margins in Vancouver

The 2010 Winter Olympics are over. It was absolutely brilliant! Great atmosphere, fantastic venues, and most of all for us a gold medal to remember for years.

 

A great show where incredible athletes do amazing things with state of the art technology. Science and technology play nowadays a crucial role for success in winter sports. Every move can be analysed in real time, every turn and the technology used can be dissected to show how good some athletes are. Shaun White won an impressive 2nd gold in the Half Pipe and everyone can see why he was better than everyone else.

Every technique can now be studied in details and athletes and coaches can receive feedback on the field of play. Despite the fact technology plays a big role in most of the winter sports I have to say that as usual, it is the athlete who wins.

Having the right mindset and being totally prepared is what makes the difference.

Technorati Tags: Sports Science,Olympic Games,Coaching

Physical preparation, nutrition, psychological preparation, fitness all play a role. However most of the times people forget that behind a great athlete there is always a brilliant coach. Coaching seems to be underrated in modern times. Reading some of the media during and after the games, it seems that an athlete wins because he/she is good or because he/she has the most advanced technology. What I can say is that many athletes win because they have incredibly good coaches, able to prepare them very well and most of all TEACH them something more or better than other coaches can do. They are the least celebrated individuals, and in my opinion the people who can really make the difference between winning and losing.

The margins between winning and losing are very small. Fractions of seconds separate a gold medal from a silver, bronze or no medal at all. What role can sports science play?

Sports science can only make an impact if a talented athlete has a talented coach and a structured programme is in place. Science can then help the coaching process pushing to reach the limits of the athlete’s potential and identifying the marginal gains.

There is more to be written on this topic, and I promise to write more in the next few months.

Team GB Blog from the Vancouver games

Dear readers,

I am in Canada for the Winter Olympics and will be writing frequent reports from the Team GB base in Whistler. I will not write much about science, but I hope you will be interested in knowing a bit more about sports science in the real World during the biggest sporting event.

You can follow the blog on:

http://vancouver2010.teamgb.com/blogs/teamgb/marco-cardinale-20.aspx

 

Technorati Tags: Olympic Games,sports science

Vancouver 2010

Technorati Tags: Sports Science,Technology

The Olympic Winter Games are starting in few days and athletes are finalising their preparations for Vancouver. I will be there with Team GB in my second Olympic Game after the exciting Beijing Olympics. In the last 3 years we have spent a lot of time helping and supporting our winter sports athletes to help them prepare in the best possible way for Vancouver. We are not alone of course. Many countries are investing large sums to gain edges in all areas of preparation. Winter sports rely a lot on a variety of equipment for training and competition and in the race for success scientists from all over the World are looking at innovative technologies to give an edge to their athletes. Team Canada has set the target to finish first in the medal table at their home games and to accomplish this dream has invested $ 8 millions in a programme with 55 top secret projects. Strangely enough, despite naming the project “Top Secret”, the Canadians are adamant to talk about it. Of course they are proud of the wonderful job which has been done and are not afraid to talk about it.

Top Secret had two components. One dealt with the hardware of boots, skis, skates, poles, helmets and suits. The other focused on human physiology. In particular, a lot of work has been apparently done on recovery modalities.

We have done our work as well and hope to create few upsets in Canada. Preparation and travel plans are the first priority as our athletes will be competing in another continent. So plans to cope with jet lag and speed up adjustment to the new time zone have been put in place as well as recovery strategies to reduce the effects of sitting on a plane for hours. We have organised holding camps in Calgary and Lake Placid to provide our athletes with the best environment to prepare for the games. Science and technology projects have been conducted with various sports on equipment development, innovative training, preparation strategies and recovery modalities in partnership with our colleagues at UK Sport and at the Scottish and English Institutes of Sport. Last but not least a great partnership with Adidas means we could provide our athletes with innovative clothing solutions.

You can see what Team GB athletes think of our kit here:

So, we have our own cards to play and are looking forward to the next few weeks.

Recovery seems to be an hot issue and every country is looking at optimising recovery strategies for athletes competing over few days during the Olympics. Competition preparation and recovery are possibly the key areas where significant gains can be obtained. Physical and technological preparation is carried out for 4 years, but it is the little detail in the last few days which can make a significant difference for athletes on the big day.

Little details like what they drink, what they eat before their competition, the timing of food and special drinks intake, how they warm up, and most of all in what physical and mental state they are when standing on the start line. Of course technology plays a big role, equipment can make a difference, but the winner is always the athlete as no equipment can win on its own!

Celebrating 2008 success

Dear readers,

as we are approaching the end of the year, the British Olympic Association has published on its website this year’s Christmas card which contains also a link to a video highlight of Team GB success in Beijing.

You can access the Christmas card and the video here.

The videoclip is absolultely excellent and pays tribute to the British success at the Olympic Games in Beijing this summer.

47 reasons to be happy

24th of August 2008, the Olympic Games in Beijing are just closed and the celebrations begin! Team GB had the best games since 1908 winning 47 medals and ending fourth in the medal table.

The  Olympic Games in Beijing have been an incredible challenge for myself, my colleagues at the BOA, the fellow sports scientists involved in all sports qualified and all the coaches and athletes competing in China. Hard work always pays, and it was such an amazing feeling to come to the conclusion of the games having accomplished the best result ever for British Sport. 19 Gold medals, 13 silver and 15 bronze and performances that will always be embedded in everyone’s memory.

When the Olympic torch was lit on the 8.08.08 we all knew Team GB was going to be a great surprise, we knew how much work we put into preparing the team for the environmental, travel and cultural challenges and we were convinced we put every athlete in the best possible condition to compete.

The recces conducted in the previous years in China and Macau, the workshops, the research studies, the meetings with various sports experts, the hours spent in finding solutions and convincing practitioners on various procedures have produced the results that we were all dreaming and hoping for.

Fourth in the medal table has a lot of meanings for me. First, it means we are getting closer to the superpowers, secondly it means we improved massively from Athens 2004, third it means we beat the Italians by 19 medals. The fourth one is something I learnt here in the UK, fourth also meant we beat the Australians!

I am delighted and honored I was given the opportunity to lead the Sports Science aspects of the Olympic preparation project for Team GB and would like to thank all the colleagues that worked with me to implement the preparation and competition plans. Listing all it would be impossible, you know who you are and you should be all proud of the fantastic results your athletes obtained. I believe everyone that works in sport in Great Britain should be proud of Team GB’s success at the games as such results are due also to the hard work of the coaches and volunteers who identified and coached the fantastic talented athletes so successful in China.

Last but not least I would like to thank the British Olympic Association and UK Sport for the funding provided to the various operations and the trust and support received since 2005.

Now, it’s time to think about Vancouver 2010 to make few surprises in winter sports and then London 2012 to ignite Great Britain again!

I promise all readers I will try to update the blog more often now with some technical articles. Stay tuned!