Today’s top 5 from Purdue University

Purdue News Now

Trevor Peters gives you the latest as Boilermaker athletes prepare for the start of the Olympic Games in Paris, plus commencement and undergraduate research symposium news in this week’s “Purdue News Now.”

Plus, check out five good stories below you may have missed. 

Boilermaker Olympians ready to compete on the world stage

No matter how you measure it, experience will serve as a teacher for the 10 Purdue athletes participating in the Paris Summer Olympics. In diving, the sport of four current Boilermakers, there will be the added benefit of having four-time medalist David Boudia as an assistant coach of Team USA. Boilermaker athletes will also compete in volleyball, golf, and track and field events at the Summer Olympics.

Media contact: Derek Schultz, dcschultz@purdue.edu

Guild partnership with Team USA has athlete chasing down the next dream

As a four-time Paralympian, Rose Hollermann knows what it takes to go for the gold. She earned her bachelor’s degree in elementary education while training for the 2020 Tokyo Games. But when presented with an opportunity to pursue a master’s degree, she hesitated, a decision she soon began to regret. So when Team USA partnered with Guild to offer athletes educational opportunities through Purdue Global, Hollermann’s response came almost instantly.

Media contact: Matthew Oates, oatesw@purdue.edu 

How peaking helps Olympic athletes get gold

Jason Chrapek, a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Health and Kinesiology at Purdue University, explains what peaking is and how this process prepares athletes for the Olympics. Chrapek says peaking is a phase in training that gets athletes in the best possible physical condition before an event. For professional athletes like Olympians, the difference in performance before and after peaking might be 1% or smaller, but that marginal improvement could be key to getting a gold medal.

Media contact: Trevor Peters, peter237@purdue.edu 

Battling e-doping in virtual cycling

For virtual cycling to become an Olympic sport, its organizers must find a way to make the competition fair for all riders. Boilermakers like Patrick Cavanaugh are stepping up, battling e-doping in virtual cycling. Cavanaugh (BS aeronautical and astronautical engineering ’23) is a research engineer at Purdue’s Ray Ewry Sports Engineering Center, based in Indianapolis, which is collaborating with the International Olympic Committee and the International Cycling Union to level the competitive playing field and help virtual cycling become an Olympic sport.

Media contact: Brian Huchel, bhuchel@purdue.edu

‘This Is Purdue’ podcast — A look into sports engineering and its impact on the Olympic Games with Jan-Anders Mansson

Jan-Anders Mansson, executive director of the Ray Ewry Sports Engineering Center and Distinguished Professor of Materials and Chemical Engineering at Purdue University, talks about how the work at the Ewry Center in Indianapolis impacts the Olympic Games, the International Cycling Federation, World Aquatics and more.

Media contact: Kate Young, taylor58@purdue.edu 

MORE: Recent AP video stories

The AP Newsroom (for AP members) and Purdue News YouTube channel (for all reporters) provide comments from Purdue experts on timely topics.

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a public research institution demonstrating excellence at scale. Ranked among top 10 public universities and with two colleges in the top four in the United States, Purdue discovers and disseminates knowledge with a quality and at a scale second to none. More than 105,000 students study at Purdue across modalities and locations, including nearly 50,000 in person on the West Lafayette campus. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue’s main campus has frozen tuition 13 years in a row. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap — including its first comprehensive urban campus in Indianapolis, the Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business, Purdue Computes and the One Health initiative — at https://www.purdue.edu/president/strategic-initiatives.