Dutch Short Track Skaters Sjinkie Knegt and Suzanne Schulting Have a Secret Weapon for the Upcoming Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018

On their way to Olympic gold thanks to Samsung SmartSuit?

The Samsung SmartSuit was unveiled today in IJsstadion Thialf. The innovative skating suit and associated app help Dutch short track skaters Sjinkie Knegt and Suzanne Schulting to improve their skating posture in real-time during training. The two are currently the only skaters in the world to use the suit. With this secret weapon, they stand a good chance of winning medals at the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018.

The Samsung SmartSuit is a custom-made short track skating suit that measures the skater’s precise body posture in order to calculate the distance from their hips to the ice and uses a wireless connection to communicate with coach Jeroen Otter’s smartphone via an app that provides data in real time. This allows him and embedded scientist Bjorn de Laat to see whether Sjinkie and Suzanne are bent deep enough with millimetre accuracy. If their posture is not optimal, the coach can press a button to send a vibration that the skater can immediately feel on their wrist. This allows the skater to adjust their posture accordingly.

“By quantifying the skater’s body posture, we can train even more effectively. I’ve already noticed that Sjinkie and Suzanne have benefited from this unique innovation,” says National Team Manager Jeroen Otter. “At the championship level, it’s all about the details. Training with the Samsung SmartSuit and the immediate feedback via the smartphone can make the difference between silver and gold.” Multiple world- and European champion Sjinkie Knegt adds: “I always used to skate by intuition, so I had to guesstimate whether I’m bent deep enough. But now, my coach can see precisely if I have to bend just a bit deeper to find my ideal posture.”

“At Samsung, we strive to use our innovations to make daily life more pleasant,” says Gerben van Walt Meijer, Samsung Netherlands Mobile Marketing Manager. “With our technical expertise we can also help to improve athletes’ performance. With the Samsung SmartSuit, we hope to lift Sjinkie and Suzanne to a higher level, and to help them realise their dream of winning Olympic gold.” The SmartSuit is just one way that Samsung helps users to achieve its international appeal to DoWhatYouCan’t; to blaze new trails and to think in terms of opportunities, not limitations. Gerben van Walt Meijer: “With the SmartSuit, we challenge Sjinkie and Suzanne to push themselves to the limit.”

Samsung Benelux sponsors Sjinkie and Suzanne in their preparations for the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018, and they have developed the Samsung SmartSuit and the application specifically for the two skaters in cooperation with the Royal Dutch Skating Federation (KNSB). Wireless connection is the key element of the SmartSuit. In doing so, Samsung gives new meaning to the term ‘sponsorship’: with the help of technological innovation, the brand can actively contribute to athletes’ performances.

Source:Netherlands Newsroom

Samsung and the Olympic Games

Samsung’s involvement in the Olympic Games began with the company’s local sponsorship of the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul. In 1998, Samsung expanded its sponsorship activities by becoming a Global Olympic Partner in the field of wireless communications equipment, providing the Games with its own wireless communications platform and mobile devices. These innovative mobile technologies offer the Olympic community, athletes and fans around the world the opportunity to communicate interactively and to exchange information.