AThey play hard, they play often, and they play to win. Australian sports teams win more than their fair share of titles, demolishing rivals with seeming ease. How do they do it? A big part of the secret is an extensive and expensive network of sporting academies underpinned by science and medicine. At the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), hundreds of youngsters and pros live and train under the eyes of coaches. Another body, the Australian Sports Commission (ASC), finances programmes of excellence in a total of 96 sports for thousands of sportsmen and women. Both provide intensive coaching, training facilities and nutritional advice.

A 他们努力比赛，不懈拼搏，以取胜为目标。澳大利亚体育劲旅轻松地击败对手取得了辉煌战绩。他们是怎样做到的?秘密的关键就是澳大利亚各个体育研究院之间在科学和医学的支持下建立了广泛而又昂贵的网络系统，在澳大利亚体育学院(AIS)里，许多青年人和专业运动员在教练的监督下训练。另外一个团体，澳洲体育委员会(ASC)资助共涉及96个项目的数千名男女运动员。两个组织都提供了强化指导、训练设施和营养建议。

BInside the academies, science takes centre stage. The AIS employs more than 100 sports scientists and doctors, and collaborates with scores of others in universities and research centres. AIS scientists work across a number of sports, applying skills learned in one - such as building muscle strength in golfers - to others, such as swimming and squash. They are backed up by technicians who design instruments to collect data from athletes. They all focus on one aim: winning. 'We can't waste our time looking at ethereal scientific questions that don't help the coach work with an athlete and improve performance,' says Peter Fricker, chief of science at AIS.

B 在各个研究院里，科学都占据了核心位置。澳大利亚体育学院雇用了100多位体育科学家和医生，并与其他20位大学和研究中心的人员合作。AIS的科学家的工作横跨不同领域，将一个项目中学到的技巧应用在其他领域，例如，将高尔夫球手增强肌肉力量的方法应用于游泳和壁球运动。他们有专业技术人员的支持。这些专业技术人员设计仪器，从运动员身上获取数据。他们都为了一个目标：胜利。AIS的科研主管彼得·福瑞克说：“我们不能把时间都浪费在那些虚无缥缈的科学问题上，因为它们无法帮助教练让运动员提高成绩。”

CA lot of their work comes down to measurement - everything from the exact angle of a swimmer's dive to the second-by-second power output of a cyclist. This data is used to wring improvements out of athletes. The focus is on individuals, tweaking performances to squeeze an extra hundredth of a second here, an extra millimetre there. No gain is too slight to bother with. It's the tiny, gradual improvements that add up to world-beating results. To demonstrate how the system works, Bruce Mason at AIS shows off the prototype of a 3D analysis tool for studying swimmers. A wire-frame model of a champion swimmer slices through the water, her arms moving in slow motion. Looking side-on, Mason measures the distance between strokes. From above, he analyses how her spine swivels. When fully developed, this system will enable him to build a biomechanical profile for coaches to use to help budding swimmers. Mason's contribution to sport also includes the development of the SWAN (SWimming ANalysis)system now used in Australian national competitions. It collects images from digital cameras running at 50 frames a second and breaks down each part of a swimmer's performance into factors that can be analysed individually - stroke length, stroke frequency, average duration of each stroke, velocity, start, lap and finish times, and so on. At the end of each race, SWAN spits out data on each swimmer.

C 很多工作都需要数据测量，从游泳选手入水时的确切角度，到自行车运动员每秒间所产生的动力。这些数据都用来逼出运动员的成绩。焦点集中在每一位运动员身上，一点点改进他们的动作，这里挤出0．01秒，那里挤出1毫米，哪怕再小的收获也不嫌小。正是这些微小的、逐步的改进之和造就了世界纪录。为了演示整套测量系统如何工作，AIS的布鲁斯·梅森展示了一套用于研究游泳运动员的三维分析工具的雏形。一个世界游泳冠军的线形模型切入水中，胳膊在慢动作划水。从侧面看，梅森测量了她每次划水间的距离，从上方他分析了她脊椎骨骨节如何转动。一旦研发成功，这套系统可以使他为教练们建成生物力学的数据库用来帮助游泳新星。梅森对体育的贡献还包括目前在澳大利亚国内比赛中使用的SWAN(游泳分析系统)的研发，它能以每秒50帧的速度用数码相机记录影像，把运动员的动作分解后逐一分析每次划水的距离、频率和平均持续时间、速度、入水、每圈和结束的时间等。每次比赛结果，SWAN都会显示每人的数据。

D'Take a look,' says Mason, pulling out a sheet of data. He points out the data on the swimmers in second and third place, which shows that the one who finished third actually swam faster. So why did he finish 35 hundredths of a second down? 'His turn times were 44 hundredths of a second behind the other guy,' says Mason. 'If he can improve on his turns, he can do much better' This is the kind of accuracy that AIS scientists' research is bringing to a range of sports. With the Cooperative Research Centre for Micro Technology in Melbourne, they are developing unobtrusive sensors that will be embedded in an athlete's clothes or running shoes to monitor heart rate, sweating, heat production or any other factor that might have an impact on an athlete's ability to run. There's more to it than simply measuring performance. Fricker gives the example of athletes who may be down with coughs and colds 11 or 12 times a year. After years of experimentation, AlS and the University of Newcastle in New South Wales developed a test that measures how much of the immune-system protein immunoglobulin A is present in athletes' saliva. If IgA levels suddenly fall below a certain level, training is eased or dropped altogether. Soon, IgA levels start rising again, and the danger passes. Since the tests were introduced, AIS athletes in all sports have been remarkably successful at staying healthy.

D “看一看，”梅森说，他取出一张数据表，上面显示了第二名和第三名的成绩。他指出第三名的选手反而游得更快，那么他为什么落后了0．35秒呢?梅森说：“原来是他转弯时比别人落后了0．44秒。如果他能改进转身时的技术，那么成绩会好很多。”AIS的研究人员正把这种精确度运用到一系列体育项目中。

EUsing data is a complex business. Well before a championship, sports scientists and coaches start to prepare the athlete by developing a 'competition model', based on what they expect will be the winning times. 'You design the model to make that time,' says Mason. 'A start of this much, each free-swimming period has to be this fast, with a certain stroke frequency and stroke length, with turns done in these times.' All the training is then geared towards making the athlete hit those targets, both overall and for each segment of the race. Techniques like these have transformed Australia into arguably the world's most successful sporting nation.

与墨尔本的微型技术合作研究中心一起，他们正在开发可以装在运动员衣服或鞋子里的不显眼的传感器，来监控心率、排汗、放热或是其他任何对运动员运动能力可能有影响的因素。这样做不仅仅是为了测量运动表现。福瑞克举了在一年中患了11次或12次感冒而状态不佳的几个运动员的实例。经几年实验后，AIS和新南威尔士州的纽卡斯尔大学开发出一项测试，检测在运动员唾液内有多少免疫球蛋白A。如果此蛋白水平突然下降至低于某一水平，训练就放缓或停止；不久，该蛋白水平开始增加，危险也随之过去。由于此项测试的应用，AIS各个项目的运动员一直都非常健康。

FOf course, there's nothing to stop other countries copying - and many have tried. Some years ago, the AIS unveiled coolant-lined jackets for endurance athletes. At the Atlanta Olympic Games in 1996, these sliced as much as two per cent off cyclists' and rowers' times. Now everyone uses them. The same has happened to the 'altitude tent', developed by AIS to replicate the effect of altitude training at sea level. But Australia's success story is about more than easily copied technological fixes, and up to now no nation has replicated its all-encompassing system.

E 使用数据是一项复杂的工作。在一项赛事之前，体育科学家和教练就基于他们的理想成绩开始为运动员设计一个“赛事模式”。梅森说：“你设计这个模式是为了达到那个时间目标。开始时要达到这个程度．每个自由游动的期间要这么快，每划一下的频率和距离要达到某一水平，要在这些时间里完成转身。”无论是整体还是赛事的一部分，所有的训练也都指向这一目标。类似的技术使澳大利亚转变为具有争议的世界体育最强国。