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Ready for Impact at the Winter Olympics

Posted by Engineering Communications on February 10, 2014 in News


Dr. Clifton Johnston, NSERC Chair in Design Engineering made a significant impact to the safety of speed skating athletes. Johnston spent seven years researching and developing a crash pad system to help reduce injuries to speed skaters.

Through his research, he found a solution that greatly improves the type and quality of protective matting covering the rink boards. The solution Johnston found is the right combination of foam.

“Combinations of different kinds of foam give you different responses. To minimize the injuries to speed skaters we had to find the right combination of material. It’s a fairly complex process.” Says Johnston.

In 2010 he was hired to design the pads for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. The results from his design were outstanding. A speed skater went headfirst into the pads, got up, and skated away. The crash had the potential to cause serious injury to the skater.  

“We’re trying to minimize the amount of bounce-back and the amount of peak deceleration skaters experience if they hit the pads,” says Johnston.  If no one gets hurt, I know the work we did is keeping the athletes safe from injury.”

Johnston is pleased that his research has helped to reduce the potential for serious injury to speed skaters, and that his design has also influenced the crash pad design at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics.