Paris 2024 Olympics: injury prevention, virtual opponents, fatigue management… research that the Blues have benefited from

L'Inria a mis au point un logiciel qui permet aux cyclistes sur route de s'entraîner en conditions de course. Midi Libre – Richard Gougis

As part of the France 2030 investment plan, twelve university research programs have put science at the service of performance and Olympic preparation.

A record number of medals secured, a probable place in the top 5 of the ranking: despite a drop in form in recent days, the Blues are meeting the objectives set before their Paris Games. A raid that is fanning the flames of passion in the stands but which owes nothing to chance.

We have already mentioned the exceptional means deployed by the National Sports Agency and its manager Claude Onesta to optimize and individualize preparations. But in the shadows, many federations have also sought ways to gain concentration or precious hundredths in the eyes of artificial intelligence or the use of mindfulness.

“Seeking marginal gains”

“Today, a victory or a medal are a matter of nothing. We need to seek out marginal gains.” Alexis Ruffault, a psychology researcher at Insep, perfectly summed up the philosophy of the 12 priority research programs that have been put at the service of sports federations under the label “Very high performance sport”, as part of the France 2030 investment plan.

In charge of innovation at Insep, the institute where many Olympic athletes train, Adrien Marck is at the heart of these “improvement systems worked on with federations, Creps, university researchers and private companies”. All under the leadership of the Ministry of Higher Education. No fewer than 1,500 researchers and 100 agents from the Ministry of Sports have been mobilized over the past 6 years on the 12 research programs.

The army to the rescue of swimmers' sleep

One of the main enemies of high-level athletes is lack of sleep, which impairs recovery. Swimmers are particularly exposed to it due to a rhythm that most often requires them to do two training sessions a day.

It is not uncommon for them to get into the water as early as 6 a.m. A study by the FFN has highlighted altered or fragmented sleep quality in a majority of its top swimmers.

Some of them have even admitted their fears of becoming dependent on taking melatonin to combat the phenomenon. The FFN has therefore called on the Armed Forces Biomedical Research Institute (IRBA) to come to its aid.

And to apply to sport methods developed for soldiers operating in the field. IRBA researchers have thus made swimmers aware of the use of cold baths and the use of micro-naps (5 to 15 minutes) or even sleep preparation techniques using sophrology.

She also directed them towards the use of thermoregulated mattresses. Very sensitive to this sleep problem, some swimmers like Florent Manaudou use connected rings to better measure it.

Florent Manaudou is one of the athletes who use a connected watch to manage their sleep EPA – RITCHIE B. TONGO

Worked on for 4 years within Insep itself, the D-Day project, led by psychology researcher Alexis Ruffault, optimizes sharpening and recovery in swimming by developing the use of cold baths and cryotherapy, “and by ensuring that athletes fully adhere to these techniques”, the researcher explains.

Injury prevention for rugby sevens

Another project, Fulgur, is to improve injury prevention, particularly on the hamstrings. Information on the connected muscles is transmitted to the coach to adapt the individualization of the workload via an app. Rugby Sevens used it a lot during its preparation, as did some coaches of the French athletics team.

“Of our 200 teams, 23 work in the field of sport”, explains Franck Multon, research director for Inria (National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology), in Rennes. Boxing, climbing, gymnastics, tennis… The beneficiaries are numerous.

At the Club France de la Villette, the researcher presents work on road cycling. With a virtual reality headset on his eyes, the rider sees simulated attacks in the peloton before his eyes:“These are difficult things to work on in a real situation… The goal is to identify what, in the attack, is anticipatory, a shoulder or hip movement. We will amplify it using AI to condition the runner to look in the right place and create reaction reflexes." An application for which the University of Montpellier collaborated.

Virtually confront an opponent in the ring

In Grenoble, Inria worked to reconstruct three-D movements on climbing, a valuable tool for improving one's gestures. In boxing, also thanks to the measurement and recording of movements in three D, programs allow boxers to train to face this or that opponent in virtual reality. “We could imagine it for all opposition sports except judo which is very complex, specifies Franck Multon.Even table tennis is interested in it."

Félix Lebrun training on a simulator to dominate the Chinese masters of the discipline in four years ? This is no longer science fiction…

Managing mental fatigue in fencing

French fencing has taken a lead in this area. Lecturer and psychologist at Nanterre, Jean Fournier has supervised for four years, with five universities, a work program on fatigue and decision-making of fencers, with a background of mental preparation.

A number of data were collected during training on fencers, also questioned on their combat strategies and their thoughts during combats. “We were able to intervene at three levels, explains Jean Fournier. On cognitive overload, to train them to make the right decisions when they are tired, on a perception-action coupling in video to gather information on opponents and on mindfulness to manage emotions during combat and set up a refocusing routine.”

Part of the legacy of the Games

A program that could be extended to youth categories after this “test” Olympiad on the Olympic fencing team, which won seven medals in Paris but only one gold.

“These scientific programs contribute to the legacy of the Games, insists the Minister of Higher Education and Research, Sylvie Retailleau. Because the ultimate goal is to make these innovations known so that as many people as possible can benefit from them.”

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