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sports science 2-Jun-2004 At 12:45:38 PM Nico

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Help please! I'm looking for sports scientists (diet, biomechanics, sports psychology, whatever) for National Science Week 2004 (14 - 22 August). They/you would need to be available to field media enquiries during that time.

I'm thinking of sports outside the Olympic/football/cricket ambit (they have many sports scientists available).

Somewhere amongst my books I've got a vintage (1988) academic paper from an American medical journal, full of interesting information derived from Yosemite, for example: researchers came to the conclusion that helmets might have some slight effect on the total of injuries, but that the climbers who were dead were already so dead that a helmet would not really have helped. Most of the injuries occurred, according to this study, to experienced climbers, while leading. On 29% of leader falls, "protection" (!) pulled out of the rock during a fall. Six climbers were injured, one fatally, while climbing without a rope, one was killed when he abseiled off the end of his rope, and one unfortunate was squashed by a dislodged boulder while he lay asleep in his tent. Two climbers fell 243 metres, roped together, when their anchor failed. Despite helmets, they died. Nearly all (89%) climbers paid their bills in full. Sources of injury included bat bite, and assault on one climber by another with a piton hammer.

Now that's what I call sports science ...