Maths and Sport: Countdown to the Games

If your team scores first in a football match, how likely is it to win? And are maths and sportsmanship at odds on whether players should ever commit a professional foul? John Haigh shows us how to use probability to find the answers in this article aimed at general readers and older students, and explains the implications for the rules of the game.

Runners and cyclists can tolerate heat and cold but the thing they dislike most is wind. They know it produces slower lap times on loop courses. John Barrow sees whether mathematics can provide the answer why in this short article aimed at older students and general readers.

If you are training seriously for any sport then you are in the business of optimisation - doing all you can to enhance anything that will make you do better and minimise any faults that hinder your performance. John Barrow takes a look at how mathematics helps athletes optimise their performance in the high jump and pole vault in this article aimed at older students (Key Stages 4 and 5).

Usain Bolt, the "fastest man on the planet", aims to get his 100 metre world record of 9.58 seconds down to 9.40 seconds. But is there an ultimate limit which no runner can possibly break? In this article, aimed at the general public and older students, Tony Crilly looks at whether mathematics can give us the answer.

The Olympic and Paralympic Games are a global celebration of excellence, determination and effort. Much of the media coverage, though, tends to focus on each country's tally of gold medals. This article by Rob Eastaway and John Haigh explores some of the mathematical questions raised by Olympic success. How well did Britain really do in 2008 in Beijing, with nineteen golds? Are some gold medals worth more than others? And are there even some sports the Olympics should drop?

For this article Plus, our free online maths magazine, interviewed leading researchers in sports technology and engineering to learn more about their work with Olympic and Paralympic athletes in a range of sports. Improvements to equipment or clothing may save only a few hundredths of a second, but that can mean the difference between a silver or gold medal.

This article explores the Velodrome, the first of the London 2012 venues to be completed. With its sweeping curved roof and beautiful cedar clad exterior the Velodrome is a stunning building. But what most of the athletes are excited about is the elegant wooden cycle track enclosed inside. How does its geometry contribute to speed?

How should you decide which leg of the 4x400 metres relay the team's fastest runner should run? This short article, aimed at older students and the general public, looks at some of the tactical choices team captains and coaches face and how randomness might help.

After every Olympics, there is speculation about which country performed best. Should we really be surprised when China, with its huge population, and the US, with its combination of high GDP and population, top the medal table? Can we take a look at the medal tables and see which countries did indeed perform better than expected?

As London is heading for the 2012 Olympics, it's not just athletes who are gearing up for action. Engineers, too, are working hard to produce the cutting-edge sporting equipment that guarantees record performances. If you're a tennis player, your most important piece of equipment is your racket. Over recent decades new materials have made tennis rackets ever bigger, lighter and more powerful. So what kind of science goes into designing new rackets?