Search Results (821)

A triathlon is a multi-sport event that consists of three simultaneous events: swimming, biking, and running. This sport has experienced significant growth in the past few decades, with colleges and universities now participating. This exploratory mixed-methods study examined the motivations and perceived health benefits of college triathletes during the COVID-19 pandemic, using the Means-Ends of Recreation Scale and the Perceived Health Outcomes of Recreation Scale (N = 29), as well as semi-structured interviews (N = 4). Results indicate no difference in motives or health outcomes between male and female survey respondents. The thematic analysis of open-ended interview questions highlighted lived experiences. The results obtained provide preliminary evidence of the importance of motivation and health outcomes of college triathletes during the pandemic. Full article

Participation in running events has expanded worldwide, consolidating itself as a form of active leisure and a driver of social and tourism engagement. Although runners’ motivations have been extensively studied, perceived inclusivity, understood as motivation derived from the event’s promotion of equitable participation across gender, age and functional ability, has rarely been examined as a distinct motivational dimension within structural models. This study analyses the motivational structure of participants in the Elche Half Marathon (Spain) and assesses the incremental contribution of inclusivity to traditional motivational frameworks. Based on a sample of 1053 valid responses, a two-stage psychometric and segmentation approach was applied. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses (EFA and CFA) were conducted to compare a four-factor model (sport-related hedonism, competition, socialization and digital socialization) with an extended five-factor model incorporating inclusivity. Subsequently, cluster analyses were performed using factor scores derived from each model. The results show that the inclusion of inclusivity improves model fit and increases explained variance, while also generating a more differentiated segmentation structure. The extended model revealed six motivational profiles, some of which displayed continuity with the classical solution, while others were reconfigured when inclusivity was introduced. Overall, the findings indicate that inclusivity functions as a complementary and context-dependent motivational dimension that refines the understanding of participation heterogeneity in running events. Rather than replacing traditional motives, inclusivity contributes incremental explanatory value and enhances the identification of motivational profiles, offering relevant insights for the design and management of mass-participation sporting events. Full article

Background: The integration of markerless motion capture systems such as OpenCap with force platforms expands the possibilities of biomechanical analysis in low-cost environments; however, it requires robust temporal synchronization procedures in the absence of shared hardware triggers. Objective: To develop and validate an automatic synchronization algorithm based on heel kinematic events to align OpenCap data with force platform signals during lower-limb functional exercises. Methods: Thirty normal-weight adult women (18–45 years) were evaluated while performing between 11 and 14 functional tasks (60° and 90° squats, lunges, sliding variations, and step exercises), yielding 330 motion records. Kinematics were estimated using OpenCap (four iPhone 12 cameras at 60 Hz), and kinetics were recorded using BTS P6000 force platforms synchronized with an OptiTrack system (Gold Standard). The algorithm detected heel contact from the filtered vertical coordinate and aligned this event with the initial rise in vertical ground reaction force. Validation against the Gold Standard was performed in 20 squat repetitions (10 at 60° and 10 at 90°) using Pearson correlation, RMSE, and MAE of the time-normalized and amplitude-normalized (0–1) vertical ground reaction force (vGRF). Results: The algorithm successfully synchronized 92.5% of the 330 records; the remaining cases showed kinematic noise or additional steps that prevented robust event detection. During validation, correlations were r = 0.85 (60°) and r = 0.81 (90°), with Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) < 0.17 and Mean Absolute Error (MAE) < 0.14, values representing less than 0.1% of the peak force. Conclusions: The heel-contact-based algorithm allows accurate synchronization of OpenCap and force platform signals during lower-limb functional exercises, achieving performance comparable to hardware-synchronized systems. This approach facilitates the integration of markerless motion capture in clinical, sports, and occupational settings where advanced dynamic analysis is required with limited infrastructure. Full article

Road running tourism events continue to grow worldwide and are increasingly leveraged by destinations seeking diversification and seasonality reduction. This study examines the motivational structure of participants in the 2025 Half Marathon Magaluf (Mallorca, Spain)—a mature Mediterranean resort undergoing tourism repositioning—and analyses how motivation-based segments relate to socio-demographic, sporting and tourism behaviours. Data were collected through a self-administered online survey (N = 306). An Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), followed by a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), validated a five-factor motivational structure: sport-related hedonism, socialisation, personal challenge, inclusiveness and digital interaction. A k-means cluster analysis identified five distinct segments—Digital Enthusiasts, Inclusive Enjoyers, Socializers, Hedonic Achievers and Inclusivists—each exhibiting differentiated patterns in Experience-Use History (EUH), origin, gender, and running-club membership. Notably, Socializers recorded the longest stays, Inclusive Enjoyers were overrepresented among first-time visitors, and Digital Enthusiasts and Hedonic Achievers included a higher share of international runners. These findings expand traditional motivational models by incorporating inclusiveness and digital interaction as emerging drivers and offer actionable recommendations for event organisers and destination managers seeking to enhance overnight stays and support destination repositioning strategies. Full article

Free live sports streaming (FLS) services attract millions of users who, driven by the excitement of live events, often engage with these high-risk platforms. Although these platforms are widely perceived as risky, the specific threats they pose have lacked large-scale empirical analysis. This paper addresses this gap through a comprehensive study of the FLS ecosystem, conducted during two major international sporting events (UCL playoffs and NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs, 2024–2025 season). We analyze the infrastructure, security threats, and privacy violations that define this space. Analysis of 260 unique domains uncovers systemic security risks, including drive-by downloads delivering persistent malware, and widespread privacy violations, such as invasive device fingerprinting that disregards regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Furthermore, we map the ecosystem’s resilient infrastructure, identifying eight clusters of co-owned domains. These findings imply that effective countermeasures must target the centralized infrastructure and ephemeral nature of the FLS ecosystem beyond traditional blocking. Full article

We propose a general methodology for constructing dynamic performance indicators (or strength metrics) in any sport that relies on comparative outcomes among competitors, using chronological positional data. Specifically, we develop a family of strength indicators for harness trotting races based on time-weighted, head-to-head results. Using the official Balearic trotting records (1990–2023), we construct win, draw, and confrontation matrices up to each event and apply a triweight kernel to reduce the influence of older results. From these matrices, we derive a family of five bounded, interpretable indicators on the interval $[0,1]$: an overall average win rate, a category-adjusted version, and three distance-specific versions (short, medium, and long). Indicator validation is performed via predictive validation, employing regularized logistic regression models (Elastic Net) based on indicator differences between horse pairs. Standard metrics (accuracy, calibration, discrimination, and Brier score) are used for the validation analysis. The results confirm that the indicators are coherent, stable, and interpretable, demonstrating that the generic construction procedure yields robust outcomes. We conclude that these indicators establish a solid and easily updatable foundation for developing dynamic ranking systems and practical selection/handicap procedures in trotting. Full article

Topic modeling of large news streams is widely used to reconstruct economic and political narratives, which requires coherent topics with low lexical overlap while remaining interpretable to domain experts. We propose TF-SYN-NER-Rel, a structural–semantic term weighting scheme that extends classical TF-IDF by integrating positional, syntactic, factual, and named-entity coefficients derived from morphosyntactic and dependency parses of Russian news texts. The method is embedded into a standard Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) pipeline and evaluated on a large Russian-language news corpus from the online archive of Moskovsky Komsomolets (over 600,000 documents), with political, financial, and sports subsets obtained via dictionary-based expert labeling. For each subset, TF-SYN-NER-Rel is compared with standard TF-IDF under identical LDA settings, and topic quality is assessed using the C_v coherence metric. To assess robustness, we repeat model training across multiple random initializations and report aggregate coherence statistics. Quantitative results show that TF-SYN-NER-Rel improves coherence and yields smoother, more stable coherence curves across the number of topics. Qualitative analysis indicates reduced lexical overlap between topics and clearer separation of event-centered and institutional themes, especially in political and financial news. Overall, the proposed pipeline relies on CPU-based NLP tools and sparse linear algebra, providing a computationally lightweight and interpretable complement to embedding- and LLM-based topic modeling in large-scale news monitoring. Full article

Lead climbing and bouldering have witnessed a surge in popularity, particularly highlighted by their inclusion in prestigious events like the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo. This systematic review aims to comprehensively assess existing literature on injury risk factors and prevention programs specific to these disciplines. We systematically searched PubMed, Web of Science, and SPORTDiscus up to November 2023. Methodological quality was appraised using the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) critical appraisal tools. Data synthesis involved qualitative analysis. Of 463 screened records, 7 studies were included, encompassing data from over 4000 climbers. The literature consistently indicates that overuse injuries—particularly to the fingers and shoulders—are more prevalent than acute injuries in adult population. However, evidence for specific risk factors is inconclusive and contradictory. Reported associations for higher skill level, age, and use of preventive measures (e.g., taping) were inconsistent across studies. Further research employing rigorous methodologies and long-term follow-up is warranted to elucidate injury mechanisms in lead climbing and bouldering. These investigations are crucial for informing clinical practice and developing sport-specific injury prevention strategies aimed at ensuring the safety and well-being of athletes in these disciplines. Future studies should focus on standardizing injury definitions and assessment methods and explore targeted preventive measures to address the unique risks associated with these sports. Full article

Continuous respiratory rate (RR) monitoring can improve the detection of clinical events, such as pulmonary infections, cardiac arrests, and sleep apnoea. Wi-Fi-based systems offer a low-cost, contactless alternative to radar and video. However, existing studies are limited to narrow respiratory ranges and small-scale validation. We present VitalCSI, a vital sign monitoring system using off-the-shelf, low-power Wi-Fi hardware. We recorded 15 healthy university athlete volunteers and developed RR estimation algorithms benchmarked against nasal airflow sensors. VitalCSI uses a consumer Wi-Fi access point and a Raspberry Pi computer to capture channel state information (CSI). We estimated the RR from CSI via principal component analysis (PCA), spectral peak detection, and breath (counting in 30 s windows), which were then fused by a multidimensional Kalman filter. VitalCSI showed strong agreement with airflow references ($r^2=0.93$, MAE = 1.20 brpm), tracking RR across 6–33 brpm and outperforming prior Wi-Fi studies. VitalCSI demonstrates the feasibility of RR monitoring with a single-antenna, single-board microcomputer as the Wi-Fi transmitter. It is the first validated system for continuous, contactless RR monitoring using consumer-grade Wi-Fi over an extended respiratory range, paving the way for use in both home and sports monitoring contexts. Full article

Background: Shoulder instability imposes a substantial burden in U.S. military populations, yet epidemiology and outcomes reporting is heterogeneous. This study aims to quantify the epidemiology of shoulder instability among U.S. active-duty servicemembers and to report operative management patterns and outcomes. Methods: A systematic review was performed by searching MEDLINE, EMBASE, Scopus, Cochrane, and SPORTDiscus through 1 August 2025. Eligible studies enrolled U.S. active-duty servicemembers with clinical and/or radiographic evidence of instability. After a single comprehensive search with uniform inclusion criteria, studies were assigned to two prespecified cohorts: (1) epidemiology (incidence, directionality, risk factors) and (2) operative management/outcomes (procedure distribution, failure, complications, return to duty [RTD] and return to sport [RTS]). Incidence was pooled as a person-years–weighted fixed-effect estimate; directionality proportions were meta-analyzed with random-effects (logit-transformed) models among patient-level, unidirectional cases. Results: Forty-nine studies were included (epidemiology, n = 8; outcomes, n = 41). Three epidemiologic datasets (42,310 events; 20,472,363 person-years) yielded a pooled military incidence of 2.07 per 1000 person-years (95% CI, 2.05–2.09). Among unidirectional cases (n = 916 shoulders), anterior instability comprised 83.9% (95% CI, 70.5–91.9) and posterior the remaining 16.1% (95% CI, 8.1–29.5). Outcome series most commonly reported arthroscopic Bankart repair (n = 933 shoulders), bony augmentation (e.g., Latarjet/Bristow; n = 700), posterior labral repair (n = 649), combined repairs (n = 511), and open Bankart (n = 442). Weighted mean failure ranged 4.7–23.6%; complications 5.2–10.9%; and reoperations 5.3–17.7%. RTD ranged 50.0–84.7% and RTS 4.8–75.0%. Conclusions: Shoulder instability in U.S. servicemembers occurs at rates exceeding population-based civilian estimates, with a relatively greater share of posterior and combined patterns. Operative outcomes vary substantially across procedures. Full article

The loss of a limb is an event that significantly affects an individual’s quality of life, with implications not only for autonomy in daily activities but also for their ability to interact with others. At the same time, current prostheses often fail to meet the user’s needs, resulting in high drop-out rates. In this review, we investigated the primary causes of prosthesis abandonment and analyzed them by highlighting the technological and psychological aspects associated with current devices. Technological issues due to reliability, functionality and comfort, together with psychological issues related to anxiety and depression, are among the main factors contributing to prosthesis rejection. Social aspects, sport, and community activities play crucial roles in improving the sense of belonging and acceptance of prosthesis users. Although research has often prioritized functionality, prosthesis development should follow patient-centered models that address the individual needs and requirements of patients, emphasizing psychological, rehabilitative, and technological support. Full article

Obtaining accurate estimates of the true probabilities of sporting events remains a long-standing problem in sports analytics. In this paper we propose a new domain-driven approach that infers true probabilities from betting odds. This task is not trivial, as betting odds are noisy because of bookmaker margins (vig), insider bets, and model imperfections. In this study, we present a novel approach that integrates estimates across multiple groups of betting markets to obtain more robust estimates of true probability. Our method takes market structure into account and constructs a constrained optimisation problem that is solved using the Dixon–Coles model of a football match. We compare our approach with a wide range of existing methods, using a large dataset of 359035 matches from more than 6000 leagues. The proposed method achieves the lowest log-loss and the best probability calibration among all tested approaches. It also performs the best in terms of expected profit convergence in Monte Carlo simulations, outperforming its competitors in terms of MSE and bias. This study contributes both to a new margin-removal (devig) method and provides a comprehensive comparative analysis of other known methods. Beyond football, this approach has potential applications in other sports with discrete scoring systems and potentially in other areas involving stochastic processes and market inference, such as prediction markets, finance, reliability engineering, and social prediction systems. Full article

With the widespread application of artificial intelligence (AI) technology in the sports industry, the spectator’s experience is increasingly shaped by AI-driven features. To explore the mechanism through which the perceived AI-enabled spectating experience affects viewing behavior, and to validate the mediating role of viewing motivation (SDT Needs Satisfaction) in the relationship between AI and viewing behavior as well as the moderating role of player identification in this mediating pathway, we adopted literature review, survey, and empirical analysis methods. A sample of 272 Chinese tennis enthusiasts was surveyed, and both the measurement model and the structural model were evaluated. The results indicate that the measurement model has good internal consistency, reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity. The perceived AI-enabled spectating experience has a significant positive effect on viewing motivation, viewing intention, and recommendation intention. The data show that the indirect effect of the perceived AI-enabled spectating experience on the viewing intention through the viewing motivation is 0.0479, and the indirect effect of the perceived AI-enabled spectating experience on the recommendation intention through the viewing motivation is 0.0548. Both reached a significant level, and the direct effect of the perceived AI-enabled spectating experience has also reached statistical significance. Therefore, viewing motivation plays a partial mediating role between AI and viewing intention and between AI and recommendation intention. Player identification plays a significant positive moderating role (β = 0.2809 on viewing intention, β = 0.1621 on recommendation intention) in the relationship between viewing motivation and viewing behavior; however, it does not moderate the relationship between AI and viewing motivation. In other words, for spectators with higher player identification, viewing motivation drives more strongly both their viewing intention and recommendation intention. We suggest that sports event organizers and media use AI technologies to design differentiated marketing to enhance user engagement and optimize spectators’ experience. For spectators with lower player identification, improving service quality can enhance their satisfaction; for those with higher player identification, efforts should focus on strengthening their connection with the players. Full article

As an emerging sports tourism event, Guizhou’s “Village Super League” injects new vitality into the optimization of human–land relationships and the development of household livelihoods in traditional villages of ethnic mountainous regions. Studying five affected traditional tourism villages from an “event–actor–capital” perspective using mixed methods, this research finds the following: (1) The composite average score of household livelihood capital is 0.3177, indicating a medium–low level, which suggests that households’ livelihood structure still requires significant enhancement despite the tourism boost from the “Village Super League”. (2) There is an imbalance in development among the villages. The livelihoods of households under the influence of the “Village Super League” exhibit distinct characteristics, being “driven by external flows, led by social capital, supported by the material foundation, and coordinated with other forms of capital.” (3) The evolution of household livelihoods follows a pathway of “event-driven supplementation, endogenous renewal of actors, capital integration and synergy.” By constructing shared event memory markers, the livelihoods of villages at different stages of tourism development demonstrate differentiated dynamic mechanisms. The findings deepen the theoretical understanding of livelihoods in traditional villages under event-driven development. Consequently, this study recommends that policymakers and community stewards channel transient social capital and external flows into durable physical and financial assets to ensure livelihood sustainability beyond the initial event boom. Full article

Multi-purpose gymnasiums are typically designed for sport events and large-scale gatherings. However, the gymnasium investigated in this study lacked sufficient consideration of acoustic performance during its design phase, resulting in severe echo problems, long reverberation time and poor speech intelligibility. These acoustic deficiencies limit its ability to host major events, reduce utilization efficiency and cannot be resolved by simply adjusting the sound reinforcement system. Conventional renovation strategies usually involve sound-absorbing materials on walls or ceilings, which are costly, labor-intensive and time-consuming. The case gymnasium discussed in this study has the particular advantage that its ceiling structure already provides partial sound absorption. To lower renovation costs and minimize construction workload, this research builds upon the existing ceiling structure and evaluates five renovation schemes through comparative analysis, proposing a renovation approach that remains economical while providing substantial performance benefits. The study calibrates the acoustic model through comparison between measurement and simulation in ODEON V16.0 software, and the validated model was further used to predict acoustic parameters under full occupancy across different schemes. Post-renovation field measurements confirm the reliability and accuracy of the proposed approach, offering a valuable reference for similar gymnasium acoustic retrofitting projects. Full article