Team USA skiers use VR to train for 2018 Winter Olympics

The Olympic organization U.S. Ski & Snowboard is working with California-based STRIVR to leverage virtual reality for training athletes. The technology is a key component in helping athletes training for events, giving them “mental access” to courses they will run so that they can learn the terrain, gate positions, turns, and more.

According to the U.S. Ski & Snowboard association, virtuality reality and 360-degree videos are being used by snow sport athletes for multiple purposes, including helping individuals recover from injuries and helping athletes train for upcoming events. The organization’s work with STRIVR first began a couple years ago.

Since then, athletes have reported favorable reactions to VR for training purposes. Talking about that is Ski & Snowboard’s High Performance Director Troy Taylor, who said:

We first started working with STRIVR around two years ago. Since then, we have seen that the value of the work we do with STRIVR is confirmed in the feedback we have from our athletes and their coaches taking part in World Cup and Olympic events. They feel that 360 video and VR increases both the confidence and performance of the athletes in events.

Virtual reality has become a popular training solution in a variety of industries. Some medical schools, for example, have tested the technology as an interactive way to educate students in surgery procedures and other techniques. Some companies have also adopted the technology for training purposes, such as Walmart’s use of VR headsets to instruct store employees.

SOURCE: US Ski & Snowboard