How do skateboarders seemingly defy gravity? How do gymnasts perform somersaults in the air? They have the skills and, as the Times interactive study showed, an understanding of the laws of motion, physics and energy.
Mary Tyson-Leppen lifts 359 pounds overhead. Jessica Stevens jumps off the trampoline, performing several somersaults in the air. Vashti Cunningham clears the high jump bar set at 6'5", the height she must clear.
And they make it look easy.
The athleticism that earns Olympians awards and, for some, medals, is impressive and perhaps underrated.
"We take for granted what we see on the screen," said Elijah Walker, photo editor of The New York Times. Each athlete must master a series of precise movements in order to perform a power skill, complete a spin in the air, or jump to victory. Greatness is not just a skill, it's a science. A skateboarder must use energy; a gymnast must understand the laws of movement. But athletes move so fast and flawlessly that it can be difficult for viewers at home to understand the mechanics of these movements.
Walker wanted to show readers every stage of an athlete's moment of greatness. So he and his team created an interactive article that reveals the complex biomechanics of Olympic athletes. The piece features six athletes from various sports: rowing, Paralympic freestyle swimming, skateboarding, trampoline gymnastics, weightlifting and high jumping.
For the first time, photographers at The Times took rapid succession single-frame images of each athlete performing an exercise or skill. The Times' multimedia and graphics editors later stitched together the selected footage. When readers click on an article, the frames smoothly transition into one another, showing in slow motion the steps that make up the movement.
Take Cunningham, one of only two high jumpers to represent the United States in the Olympics. When you watch her compete on TV, you see her running and jumping over the bar. Impressive, yes, but blink and you might miss it.
The sequence takes a few seconds, but the Times article breaks down the feat frame by frame. Readers see each of Cunningham's nine steps in her approach. Then they see the moment she jumps, kicking off with her left leg, raising her right knee. They watch as she arches her back and twists her body over the bar. And they see a sigh of relief as she lands with her shoulders back on the mat, having overcome the height. When the reader touches the text, Cunningham takes off.
"We're always trying to combine what you can see every day with the wonder of what's going on underneath," said Alan Burdick, project editor.
The interactive article was a collaboration between several Times teams, including the Health and Science Department, the Digital News Design Group, and the Photography Department.
Before the Olympics, photographers were sent to practice and, in one case (Cunningham's high jump), to competitions. The aim was to show the athletes performing their exercises rather than posing for The Times. Some events required photos from multiple angles stitched together to give a more complete picture of the body in motion.
"We made sure to capture every little detail of the moment," Walker said.
Some series contained hundreds of photos to choose from. According to Antonio De Luca, assistant editor in the Digital News Design team, it was difficult to narrow them down to a few dozen. "We experimented a lot with 'how much is too much' and 'how little is too little,'" De Luca said. Matt Ruby, Associate Editor of Digital News Design, coded the interactive, resulting in a fluid digital interface.
Each image was accompanied by notes about the science behind the movements, based on interviews between Times reporters and the featured athletes.
"You can observe the body at different stages, and we can write at that particular moment in time where the body is, informing the readers more slowly but more deeply," said De Luca.
Reporter Gina Kolata, who interviewed Cunningham, said she was thrilled to learn how Cunningham was able to contort her body in the air, which Kolata said seemed "absolutely impossible."
"Hopefully someone who's never watched the track will look at it and say, 'Oh, I want to see her.' I want to watch her do it at the Olympics," Kolata said.
For Walker, the project puts the science of greatness into perspective. For example, Jessica Stevens' trampoline exercises confirm Isaac Newton's three laws of motion. On the skipotential and kinetic energy.
"We're trying to show the audience the amazing things these athletes are able to do with their bodies and make it easier to explain," he said. "There's a lot of techniques they use that I don't think us average viewers really know."
Additional resources:
Interactive article from The New York Times The science of sports performance
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