Projects
The Elite Athlete Project
Research suggests that ~0.0025% of the global population is classified as an elite/international level athlete (McKay et al. 2021). The mission of the Elite Athlete Project, based at Oklahoma State University, is to understand how athletes of all ages and across sport attain elite standards in athletic contests. Through testing, training, and monitoring, the Elite Athlete Project will help enhance our understanding of athletic performance.
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How we will get there?
The Elite Athlete Project incorporates brilliant scientists, coaches, athletes, and students, state-of-the-art sport science technology, and advanced analytics. By combining science, practice, and real-world data to create an athlete composite, we will advance the field of sport science, coaching, and strength and conditioning.
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Projected outcomes
By generating precise information that enhances our understanding of peak performance, the Elite Athlete Project will have a focused, but lasting impact. For athletes and coaches, it could enhance the identification, recruitment, and development of athletes. For teams and organizations, it could enhance efforts towards securing adequate resources that facilitate peak performance. Across the political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal levels these findings can be utilized to solve complex, intersecting, and critical problems while enhancing current approaches.
The Female Athlete Prject
The OSU Sport Science and Analytics Lab’s commitment to advance female athlete health, performance, and recovery permeates each aspect of our work. It impacts the research we conduct, educational resources we create, and the knowledge we translate in an effort to enhance athletic performance and mitigate the risk of injury for women and girls through education, research, and service.
The Long-Term Athlete Project
Long-term athlete development is a framework applied to athletes from a young age and continued through adulthood in order to help athletes achieve their maximum potential (Mushariwa et al. 2015). The Long-Term Athlete Project at Oklahoma State University interfaces directly with local, national, and international sporting organizations to better understand how athletes develop, function, and perform. We believe that an integrated interdisciplinary approach towards providing education, research, and extension resources to athletes can enhance their enjoyment of sport and performance outcomes.
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How will we get there?
The Long-Term Athlete Project will create an adaptable yet strategic ecosystem of support for athletes and coaches across each critical stage of an athlete’s career. By creating an athlete composite that accounts for the physical, mental, nutritional, sleep, and spiritual components we will advance the world’s of understanding of how athletes develop from recreational, to trained/developmental, to highly trained/national level, to elite/international level, to world class.
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Projected outcomes
Quantitative and qualitative information that clearly details the characteristics of the “athletic lifespan”. This project is in collaboration with Dr. Andrew Fields at the Tulane University Center for Sport and Mr. Fred Nettles at the Harvard Medical School.