Case Study: U.S. Women's Olympic Cycling Team achieves Silver medal with Datameer

Big Data Analytics Drives New Athletic Advantage

The 2012 U.S. Women’s Olympic cycling team, working with trainer Sky Christopherson, faced a data overload challenge after a disappointing World Championship. High-frequency sensor and health-tracking feeds—including bicycle stress sensors recording every 100 milliseconds and around-the-clock sampling from other devices—generated vast, varied, often unstructured datasets that crashed spreadsheets and exceeded traditional BI tools.

The team deployed Datameer on Hadoop to ingest, join, analyze and visualize the disparate data, uncovering actionable links between sleep, circadian light exposure, room temperature and performance. By applying interventions such as morning light therapy and temperature adjustments, they improved recovery and closed a five-second deficit from the World Championships, ultimately earning a silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics by 0.08 seconds.

USA Olympic Team

Sky Christopherson

Team Professional Trainer