The Physics of the Winter Olympics: How Ski Mountaineering and Ski Jumping Reveal Gravity, Lift, and Energy

Regina Barber hosts a Shortwave episode that explores the physics behind the Winter Olympics. Clemson physicist Amy Pope explains how fundamental principles—gravity, friction, lift, and energy—shape performance in ski mountaineering, ski jumping, and bobsleigh. The conversation uses sports as real‑world examples to illustrate why athletes move the way they do on snow and ice, and it touches on how variables like equipment and weather complicate even the best predictions.

Introduction: The Physics of the Winter Olympics

In this episode of Shortwave, Regina Barber and physicist Amy Pope examine how physics governs top-level Winter Olympic sports. The conversation frames sports as a classroom for core physics concepts, turning spectacular athletic feats into teachable moments about motion, energy, and forces. The host sets the stage for a tour through three sports that reveal different facets of physics in action.

"What fundamental physics principles are at work when a skier jumps or when a sled goes down a mountain" - Regina Barber

Ski Mountaineering: Climbing with Skins

The first sport discussed is ski mountaineering, or ski mo, where athletes ascend a 70‑meter incline. Amy Pope explains that competitors wear skins on their skis to modulate friction: the skin offers very low friction uphill but high friction when moving back down. This directional friction creates a practical mechanism for climbing with minimal energy loss, effectively turning the athletes’ uphill motion into a controlled ascent rather than a slide. The episode compares the physical challenge to climbing 400 vertical stairs, highlighting how friction and equipment enable ascent in spite of gravity.

"These skins have like a different friction coefficient if it's moving one way versus the other" - Amy Pope

Ski Jump: Lift, Drag, and Angle of Attack

Next, the discussion moves to ski jumping, where staying airborne relies on managing drag and lift. The athletes adopt a V position to tailor their interaction with air flow, effectively using air resistance to generate lift and reduce sinking. Pope draws an analogy to airplane wings, describing how the jumpers shape their bodies to optimize the angle of attack and maximize lift while minimizing drag, enabling longer flights and greater distances. The host connects these ideas to common misconceptions about projectiles, illustrating how human bodies modify aerodynamic forces midair.

"The lift is proportional to the surface area" - Amy Pope

Bobsleigh: Conservation of Energy in a Short Race

The final sport analyzed is bobsleigh, where race outcomes hinge on the conversion of potential to kinetic energy. The team emphasizes the importance of maximizing the initial speed at the top of the hill, because all sleds start from the same height. By recruiting Olympic sprinters, teams optimize initial kinetic energy, which translates into faster times as gravity accelerates the sled down the track. The segment uses the idea of energy conservation to explain how slight differences in top speed can determine a race decided by a fraction of a second in a one‑minute run.

"Whenever you're looking at the bobsleigh competition, you are finding that you have a race that is decided by 100th of a second" - Amy Pope

Beyond Equations: Real‑World Factors in Physics of Sports

The episode also touches on the limits of physics when predictions meet messy real‑world conditions. Pope notes that weather, track conditions, and athlete skill all introduce variability that makes definitive predictions difficult. The dialogue acknowledges ongoing debates and controversies in sports science, including apparel modifications and other attempts to gain advantages, while underscoring that physics provides a framework rather than a guaranteed forecast.

"There are just so many questions that I can't possibly answer" - Amy Pope

Conclusion: The Pain and Promise of Physics in Sports

Toward the end, the hosts reflect on the ambiguity inherent in modeling complex human performance. The episode closes with an appreciation for how physics informs understanding while recognizing that no single formula can capture all variables involved in elite competition.

"That's the pain of physics sometimes" - Amy Pope

Credits and Further Exploration

The episode was produced by Hannah Chin, edited by Rebecca Ramirez, and features Amy Pope and Regina Barber in conversation. Listeners are invited to explore related episodes on the physics of other Olympic sports.