The Olympics:
Where the World Celebrates, Competes, and Coordinates

When Pierre de Coubertin, known as the founder of the modern Olympics, revived the Olympic Games from the ancient Greek tradition in 1894, he could hardly have imagined the scale and scope of activities on display in Paris this summer. From building the Olympic Village, cleaning the Seine for swimming (albeit somewhat unsuccessfully), the intricate choreography of the synchronized swimmers, and the intensity of thrilling basketball games, the modern Olympics have it all.

If humanity lacked the ability to share intentions and coordinate actions with one another, events like the Olympics could not take place. Stadiums could not be built, matches would never be scheduled, and opponents would not be able to show up at the same time to engage in competition. Finally, organizers would not need to concern themselves with the intricacies of getting large crowds to move in an orderly manner so that individual spectators could safely and efficiently arrive at their seats.

Duffy has recently been in Spain, Italy, and France filming crowds of people moving through a variety of public spaces. The Olympic Games provide a unique window into crowd dynamics, as people from all over the world gather to witness their favorite sporting events. Piccoli and his colleagues will utilize Duffy’s videos and data to refine and build better mathematical models pertaining to the safe movements of large crowds for future large-scale events.

Above all, the Olympics are a showcase of highly talented athletes who have mastered their various disciplines. Understanding team performance is at the core of van der Wel’s research on joint action. Joint action occurs whenever two or more people interact with one another, coordinating a particular action in space and time to accomplish a shared goal. This requires more than simply working together; not only do teammates share a common goal, but they also share an intention. Teammates use this shared intentionality to coordinate their actions and accomplish goals together.

“Even though these intentions exist within individuals, they merge with one another,” van der Wel said. “This merging allows people to coordinate in time and space and perform particular actions together that they would not be able to do by themselves.”

Van der Wel notes that, while shared intentionality might not seem so obvious at first, team sports would look a lot different without it. Soccer players would run into one another, while the misunderstanding of an alley-oop in basketball would result in the ball flying straight into the backboard.

The researcher explains that, in some sports, such as synchronized swimming, athletes can practice an ensemble performance for an exact context. However, in many highly skilled team sports, such as basketball, water polo, volleyball, and soccer, athletes must coordinate their actions in dynamic, unpredictable game situations.

“Not only do players need to coordinate their actions very quickly, but they also need to come up with it on the fly,” van der Wel said. “Of course, the objective of the opponent is to disrupt that coordination.”

Research has shown that, whether someone is a world-class athlete or a casual fan in the stands, there is a link between one’s ability to perform an action and how one perceives someone else performing that action. For instance, a volleyball player may jump with the goal of reaching a certain height, distance, and rotation to spike a ball rather than with a specific combination of muscle contractions in mind. From this goal, an individual mentally works out the movements needed to execute the task.

Research shows that this link between action and observer has a wide range of implications for athletes, coaches, fans, and analysts alike. For example, studies show that, if an individual has an expertise in a particular skill, then simply viewing that skill in action is enough to stimulate motor activity in the muscles.

“If you monitor the muscle activity of basketball players watching other players take a shot, you will find that the muscles involved in that shot become, at a very minimal level, more activated,” van der Wel said.

Athletes can benefit considerably from observational learning, but this approach has limits. For example, van der Wel notes that a soccer coach can show a player how to take certain shots, but if the coach is not very skilled, then essentially the player will receive little benefit from copying the action.

“Improving one’s skill is more than just practicing a lot,” van der Wel said. “When players on a team are surrounded by other players of the same caliber or higher, their skills improve.”

Van der Wel’s lesson from the Paris Olympics? Whether finding our seats in the arena or leading our team in a gold-medal match, we are always in it together.