McKinney is one of many athletes who are the beneficiaries of a program the. U.S. Olympic Committee began four years ago. The idea was to use money from donations, corporate sponsors, and a surplus from the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics to enlist the help of science in the pursuit of excellence in sport. Since 1985, the program has awarded 66 grants—totaling $664,487—to some 41 researchers at 29 universities and independent laboratories. The investigations probe everything from the physics of spiking volleyballs and the dynamics of pole vaulting to the psychology of fencing and the nutritional requirements of wrestlers.
Take the case of Mont Hubbard, a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of California, Davis. Hubbard has a $240,000 grant from the Air Force to conduct, as he says, a "very general abstract mathematical analysis of dynamical systems"—such as airplanes. That may enthrall the military, but has no value to ...
