The Functional Diagnostic Laboratory (FDL) of the MOC provides state-of-the-art physiological testing and in addition a human performance analysis. Coupled with in-depth instruction and sport specific corrections of programmes, the information provide to participants is applied to individual athletes.

FDL staff is assigned to evaluate physical performance during exercises as well as at rest. At rest this includes monitoring of: arterial blood pressure (AD); haemoglobin concentration in the blood (Hb); oxygen consumption, basal metabolic rate; lungs capacity (spirometry); body composition (muscle mass and body fat percentage from body weight). Laboratory tests of sub and maximal exercise include: functional capacities of body’s three energy systems; pulmonary ventilation capacity under exercising; VO2Max, lactate aerobic and anaerobic thresholds and efficiency. During field tests: maximal and endurance of muscle strength of lower and upper limbs; explosive power; neuromuscular response.

Such tests are important, as their results can determine whether an athlete’s programme is achieving results. Athletes at any level, who are serious enough to spend time training, want to spend that time as efficiently as possible. The only way to determine whether a training technique or program is achieving the desired results is to test regularly. Anything else is tantamount to “shooting in the dark”.

Most athletes have neither the time nor resources to spend hours training every day. For them it is crucial that their training focuses on the 20 per cent that will make 80 per cent of the difference.

This is a far more efficient approach than determining all the demands within the sport and dividing training time equally among each. You could spend hours every day trying to cater for all the different elements of fitness ... but then you’d probably suffer from over-training!

Without an initial fitness testing any subsequent training may only address already strong areas while neglecting the athlete’s weak points. Having a single fitness test done gives only limited information. Repeated testing (e.g. two-three times per year) is more valuable as it enables the charting of progress and measure improvement in physical fitness over a period of time and thus indicates the effectiveness of your training program.

Fitness testing is suited to anyone competitive or non-competitive, elite or non-elite who want to improve their current level of fitness. For the coach it is important to monitor the program of work, so as to maintain progression in terms of the volume of work and its intensity. When planning future training cycles, information of this kind is absolutely invaluable.

Dr Olga Fedotkina, Sports Scientist, MOC Functional Diagnostic Laboratory, will be a guest speaker at the next MOC seminar titled Building on our Success which will take place on Saturday 29 September, hosted at the Excelsior Grand Hotel, Valletta; her presentation will focus on Testing, monitor and screening of athletes – why, when and how.

Tokyo hoping compact bid will win IOC vote

Tokyo is hoping its plan to hold a compact games will make a big impression when the International Olympic Committee decides who gets to host the 2016 event.

With almost all venues within a 10km radius of the city centre, Tokyo is selling its bid as the most compact and efficient in the history of the Olympics.

The IOC said on Friday it had received formal applications from Chicago, US; Baku, Azerbaijan; Doha, Qatar; Madrid, Spain; Prague, Czech Republic; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Tokyo.

Thursday was the deadline for submission of applications by national Olympic committees.

Tokyo’s Olympic bid is being led by outspoken nationalist governor Shintaro Ishihara, who based a successful re-election campaign on the Olympic bid in April to win a third term in office.

“Winning the bid is no easy task,” Ishihara, who is president of the Tokyo 2016 bid committee, said in a statement. “But Tokyo is determined to demonstrate its hosting capability and vigorously promote the bid campaign with the support of the government, the JOC and the public.”

Ishihara also said that hosting the Olympics will give hope to Japan’s youth, just as earlier generations were inspired by the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

A 100,000-seat stadium on Tokyo’s waterfront is the centrepiece of Tokyo’s bid. The athletes’ village will feature five high-rise buildings on a landfill island in Tokyo Bay.

Next June, the IOC will whittle the field to a short list and then select a host city in October 2009.

Not everyone in Japan is convinced the time is right to bid for the Games.

“I have concerns about the timing and the cost,” said Shiro Asano, who finished runner-up to Ishihara in the gubernatorial election. “I don’t think the IOC will want to come back to Asia so soon after Beijing. The timing makes it too risky to spend all that money.”

Asano said Ishihara’s dream of hosting the Olympics eight years after the Beijing Games has more to do with stroking his ego than inspiring Japan’s youth.

Japan’s central government will bear up to half the cost for building major facilities for the games, but said organisers should try to utilise existing facilities to cut costs.

The recent turmoil in Japanese politics is not expected to affect the bid.

“Now that Tokyo is in the running, let’s build an even better global city we can be proud of,” Yasuo Fukuda, the leading candidate in the 23 September ballot to replace outgoing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, said at a street rally on Sunday.

Only two competition venues will be constructed specifically for the Games.

The Tokyo bid calls for renovating existing facilities that were built for the ‘64 Games.

Many venues will need major renovations to get up to international standards.

Then there is the Ishihara factor.

Over the years, the controversial governor, co-author of the 1989 book “The Japan that Can Say No” has made comments that have angered Japan’s neighbours in East Asia.

Chicago is considered the early front-runner in the 2016 race. The United States has not hosted the Olympics since Atlanta in 1996.

Three times Olympic Gold Medallist to guide Sochi 2014

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) today announced that IOC member Jean-Claude Killy, the legendary French Alpine skier and triple Olympic champion, has accepted the Chairmanship of the Coordination Commission for the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games. The appointment was made by Jacques Rogge, President of the IOC.

“Jean-Claude Killy’s knowledge of the Olympic Movement makes him the ideal person to guide Sochi as it prepares for the Olympic Winter Games in 2014,” said Rogge. “His relevant and recent experience as an outstanding Chairman of the Turin 2006 Coordination Commission will be a great asset for the IOC and for Sochi.”

In addition to his success as chair of the Turin Coordination Commission, Killy was Co-President of the Organising Committee for Albertville 1992.

KIlly’s reputation as a world-class skier was sealed when he won all three Olympic gold medals in Alpine skiing at the 1968 Winter Games in Grenoble, France.

“It is a great honour for me to be entrusted with this responsibility,” said Killy, an IOC member since 1995. “I am very pleased to be able to make a further contribution to the IOC during the forthcoming years of hard work that await us. I will use key learnings from Turin 2006, and intend to set high standards to ensure Sochi delivers fantastic Games and a tremendous sporting legacy for its city, the Krasnodar region and Russia.

The members of the Commission that Jean-Claude Killy will chair will be announced in due course. The first Coordination Commission meeting is expected to be held next year. Jean-Claude Killy will join President Rogge at the end of the month when he visits President Putin in Sochi.