Uploaded May 2020 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Most Winter Olympic sports are high-speed and dangerously high-impact, from ski-jumping to short track speed-skating to hockey. To protect their skulls and brains, athletes wear protective helmets. NSF-funded scientists Melissa Hines, Director of the Cornell University Center for Materials Research, and Kathy Flores from Ohio State University's Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, explain how a helmet's hard outer shell works to dissipate energy, and foam linings work to absorb energy. Olympic athletes Julie Chu, a member of the U.S. Women's Hockey Team, and Scott Macartney, a U.S. Ski Team member who suffered a concussion in a 2008 fall, talk about the importance of helmets to Olympic competitors.
Most Winter Olympic sports are high-speed and dangerously high-impact, from ski-jumping to short track speed-skating to hockey. To protect their skulls and brains, athletes wear protective helmets. NSF-funded scientists Melissa Hines, Director of the Cornell University Center for Materials Research, and Kathy Flores from Ohio State University's Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, explain how a helmet's hard outer shell works to dissipate energy, and foam linings work to absorb energy. Olympic athletes Julie Chu, a member of the U.S. Women's Hockey Team, and Scott Macartney, a U.S. Ski Team member who suffered a concussion in a 2008 fall, talk about the importance of helmets to Olympic competitors.
