New model could simplify mass starts in para cross‑country skiing
Exchange student Gaia Stanco has investigated how mass starts in para cross-country skiing can be planned more efficiently. The work is being carried out as a master’s thesis in close collaboration with Sports Tech Research Centre.
Gaia Stanco from Italy is among several international master’s students currently completing their theses at the Sports Tech Research Centre at Mid Sweden University. Together with her supervisors David Sundström and Julius Lidar from Mid Sweden University, as well as Laura Gastaldi at Politecnico di Torino, she has explored the possibility of developing a model that can calculate start intervals between different classes in mass-start competitions in para cross-country skiing.
The background is a question from FIS – the International Ski and Snowboard Federation. At present, athletes must complete an additional preliminary race before the official competition on the same course. Based on the results of this preliminary race and the impairment-related time percentages, athletes are placed at the start with different time intervals – a setup similar to a pursuit start.
The new model Gaia has been working on is based on simulations that could eventually replace the preliminary race. This means that a mass-start competition could be combined with completely different distances and courses during, for example, a World Cup weekend and could potentially enable championship status.
As input for the models, Gaia has used results lists from previous competitions in combination with weather and wind data, as well as FIS homologation protocols describing the geometry of the courses.
– Simulations have gone well, but more high-precision measurements will be required to achieve the results we hope for, says Gaia Stanco.
A thesis with continued development potential
The thesis is carried out in close collaboration with the research project H3 – Multidimensional Sustainability, funded by the regional development fund and the municipality of Östersund.
One of the researchers in the project is Gaia’s supervisor David Sundström, who researches the time-percentage system in para cross-country skiing.
– We weren’t sure whether this would be possible, but we see great potential in continuing to develop the model at Sports Tech Research Centre. Gaia has done a very good initial job, he says.
Next comes a final semester at her home university, Politecnico di Torino, where Gaia Stanco will defend her master’s thesis, the result of her stay in Sweden.
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