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| September 11, 2008
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| U.S. Downhillers returning to CUBRC for training |
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Led by Ted Ligety, the current World Giant Slalom champion, elite members of the U.S. Ski Team will be conducting wind tunnel training in Buffalo from September 17 – 19, 2008. The wind tunnel training program will be led by Dr. Michael S. Holden of CUBRC, a not-for-profit scientific and engineering corporation, founded by the University at Buffalo in 1983 headquartered in Buffalo. Ligety will be joined by Steve Nyman, Marco Sullivan, Scott Macartney and Andrew Weibrecht who combined give the U.S. one of the world’s strongest downhill teams.
Dr. Holden has worked with the U.S. Ski Team since 1984 when he trained Bill Johnson, the first skier to win an Olympic gold medal for the U.S. in the downhill event. Since then, 12 of the skiers who trained in Western New York with CUBRC’s Dr. Holden, in a low speed wind tunnel provided by Calspan Corporation, have gone on to receive gold medals. Holden has also worked with the luge, skeleton and speed skating teams, including Olympic medal winner and speed skater, Bonnie Blair.
Based upon his extensive experience in aerodynamics and skiing, Dr. Holden has developed a unique wind tunnel training program for the U.S. Ski Team. A key feature of this training is to accurately simulate the skiers’ aerodynamics in a downhill race enabling them to develop the most effective movement patterns to correctly integrate and optimize their skiing techniques with aerodynamics. Combining skiing and aerodynamics together with the correct selection of equipment, easily shaves tenths of second. This is a differential that typically is the difference from gold medalist to tenth place finisher in a downhill race.
Dr. Holden commented, “We at CUBRC are pleased to again support our U.S. Ski Team in its efforts to win gold at the February 2010 Winter Olympic Games.”
Dr. Holden heads CUBRC’s Hypersonic Test Facilities which are the world’s most powerful ground test facilities from Mach 4 to 30 and are used extensively by NASA, Air Force, and the Army for testing re-entry vehicles and high-speed aircraft and missiles.
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