• Question: Who or what inspired you the most to become a sports scientist?

    Asked by gorillaguy22 to Pete, Rebecca, SallyB, Sally, Sian on 14 Jun 2010 in Categories: . This question was also asked by horriblehistoriesbiggestfan.
    • Photo: Rebecca Randell

      Rebecca Randell answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      Very good question….

      The human body really intrigues me. From a young age there have been many questions that I want to find the answers to like, why do we need to eat? How can our body play the sport that we do? What makes some people better at sports than others?

      When i started my degree i met people who were doing research to answer the questions that I needed answering. I wanted to be involved in helping answering these questions.

      My supervisor, Professor Asker Jeukendrup, also inspired me to want to be a sport scientist. He is a great scientist and sports nutritionist and because of his hard work he has got to work with Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal as well as some top cyclists such as Lance Armstrong. He has given me the motivated to be a scientist and to work hard to do similar things to what he has achieved.

    • Photo: Sally Barber

      Sally Barber answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      I’ve always really enjoyed learning new things and being a sports scientist means that nearly everyday I learn something new. I suppose what has inspired me most is just how amazing our bodies are!

    • Photo: Sally Fenton

      Sally Fenton answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      I don’t really think there was a particular person..I think it was just that what i learnt I found interesting and the people who taught me were always so enthusiastic it was hard not to enjoy learning about it! If I had to say 1 person it would be me P.E teacher at school….I loved P.E and thought I wanted to be a P.E teacher at one point and so thats what made me chose to do a sport science degree…but then after I chose my degree one of my lecturers at university opened my eyes to scientific research and I loved it! she is now my supervisor (PRofessor Joan Duda) and she is the sport psychologist for loads of different teams like the USA women olympic gymnast team and the royal ballet.

    • Photo: Sian Lawson

      Sian Lawson answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      I’m not sure that I can name one big inspiration – I just carried on doing what I was most interested in, which lead me to be qualified for the job that I was most interested in.

      I’ve always been interested in movement and the musculo-skeletal system, particularly bones. My Mum was a nurse and my Dad a mathematician so that must have helped me love biomechanics (mechanics applied to living things). When I was at University I was attracted to the fact that I could study bones without having to work invasively, and I was really interested in the forensic side – just how much you could tell about the person from the bones they leave behind. This developed into a career studying how movement & exercise affects our anatomy and vice versa.

    • Photo: Peter Styring

      Peter Styring answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      I read some really interesting papers and realised that if I worked on ski engineering I could get to ski more, and work at the same time! Often the tests begin at 7 am and finish by 10 am so you get the rest of the day to ski then write up your results in the evening.

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