caption textScientific monitoring is a key aspect of
preparing elite athletes for competition.
Image courtesy of Istockphoto

Natural talent and strength played a big part in Eamon Sullivan’s record-breaking performance at the Beijing Olympics but science also played a significant role by allowing his training to occur at maximum efficiency.

To gain peak performance from elite athletes, coaches and researchers study hundreds of the physiological processes occurring during exercise to see if small training tweaks can be used to increase efficiency.
 
The more lactic acid – or lactate – is produced while exercising, the more fatigue is believed to set in, says Ben Dascombe, sports physiologist at the WA Institute of Sport in Perth.

So monitoring the lactate levels in Eamon’s blood was a regular part of his training regime in the months leading up to Beijing.

“The main reason is we measure lactate levels is so we can judge at what intensity he’s working at. Eamon’s a finely tuned athlete and you don’t want him going at full capacity the whole time.

“For us, it’s a way of judging at what intensity he’s running at, more so than him just telling us or going by his heart rate or other methods.”

Measuring lactate levels involves taking regular blood samples during training, so Eamon’s coach can determine the peak level of training required at any point in time.
     
“We have a portable lactate analyser, about the size of a mobile phone, maybe a little bigger,” says Mr Dascombe.

"It takes a sample of 0.05 of a millilitre, and takes 60 seconds to count down, so we can give pretty quick feedback to the coach.”
 
Mr Dascombe says monitoring of lactic acid levels is used with high-intensity, sprint events.

“It’s something we do across a number of sports like swimming, canoeing and cycling. It’s stock standard and has been around for quite a few years.

“But every athlete’s different in how they respond to exercise and the (lactate) numbers you need to look at.

“With someone like Eamon, I think it’s worked pretty well, we’ve looked at a lot of sessions so we know how he responds to training and what kind of numbers we expect from him.”