How a Mayo Clinic human performance expert watches the Winter Olympics

The Winter Olympic Games are once again a showcase in the highest level of athletic achievement. Which is why Michael Joyner will be watching.

The Mayo Clinic doctor studies the physiology of elite athletes and is a frequently cited expert in human performance and endurance.

During the Summer Olympics in Japan, Joyner explained to us how some athletes are able to rise to the occasion and excel on the world's biggest athletic stage. Now, in an interview edited for length and clarity, he tells us how ice and snow can up the ante.

Q: What are you watching in the Winter Olympics?

A: You've got this sort of geopolitical backdrop of China as a mature superpower and what is or isn't going on in Russia and so forth, and this sort of boycott without a boycott happening. Then you've got this omicron surge in many parts of the world and China's very intense efforts to suppress the corona virus within their borders, which makes it very, very different from any Olympics I'm familiar with.

Q: That wasn't the case for the Summer Olympics, was it?

A: Six months ago, there was a successful Summer Olympics in Tokyo. The whole ambience is different. Last summer, we were hoping that maybe there'd be this nice athletic celebration with some terrific performances by people like [American track star] Allyson Felix, [Kenyan marathoner] Eliud Kipchoge and others to kind of lead us out of this tough last year and a half. But obviously that hasn't happened and now here we are in Beijing.

A: I think one thing that people have to recognize about elite athletes is that these individuals know how to focus, and they know how to block things out, and they know how to live in a bubble.

Q: How does watching the Winter Olympics differ from the Summer Olympics?

A: Snow and ice, which doesn't necessarily resonate with the whole world. The events of the Summer Olympics are in places where everybody participates. Distance running is essentially a zero-equipment sport. Soccer is played in countries all over the world. That explains why you have big countries with big teams who have a pretty big footprint in the Olympics.

The Norways, the Swedens, the Finlands of the world are playing to their cultural strengths as cold weather places. And look where many of the athletes come from who make the U.S. [Winter Olympics] team. They come from Up North, where we are, or the mountains.

Q: You're an expert in endurance sports, and there are endurance sports at the Winter Olympics: cross-country skiing and speed skating. But a lot of events demand more than endurance.

But you know, one of the most unappreciated and demanding sports there is is downhill skiing. These individuals who are in that tuck position going 60-70 miles an hour, it's like doing a squat all day long. The lactic acid levels in those quadricep muscles are about as high as they can get. We all have the burning sensation when we exercise or work out. But to get into that tuck position, hold it for a couple of minutes, it's really something.

Q: So it takes more than nerves of steel and split-second reflexes.

A: Yeah. If anybody ever wants to see something that's pretty wild, there are some YouTubes of [American skier] Mikaela Shiffrin's dry land program. And there's some older ones of the "Herminator," [Austrian skier] Hermann Maier. Your legs will burn just watching them.

Q: Is there another sport you particularly admire? Perhaps one that might be more challenging to watch?

A: People look at the figure skating and it's so beautiful and so forth. But if you look at the individual figure skating and some of the jumps that the athletes are doing, and especially some of the stuff in the traditional pairs figure skating, it's really remarkable. The athleticism when you see people doing these incredibly difficult maneuvers in unison. It takes years of practice for a few minutes in the spotlight.

Q: Winter Olympics events often have the potential for disaster. You're on snow or ice. One wipeout and your event is over.