Telemark study tests wearable sensors for judging support

FIS reported a University of Lausanne study testing wearable sensors as support for detecting Telemark transition penalties. World Cup athlete Romain Beney developed the project with academic supervisors, using two sensors above each boot to analyse leg motion and the continuity between turns.

Fourteen experienced skiers completed training runs in Les Houches and Veysonnaz. More than five hundred transitions were filmed, and three former World Cup athletes independently assessed penalties to provide a comparison for the sensor algorithm.

The system detected all turns and transitions identified in the footage, with promising penalty detection but remaining false positives. It requires analysis after a run and covers transition penalties only. Larger datasets and varied conditions are needed before competition use could be considered.