the change is about peace of mind for trainers and athletes, said jeremiah barnert, sport and development lead for the canadian sport institute, who added any advantage can make a significant difference at the highest levels of performance.
“we’re able to fight for one per cent all the time, and when we can not have to worry about equipment safety and cleanliness, it can help take a lot of stress away from athletes,” barnert said.
“depending on your sport, it can be thousandths of a second, it can be within centimetres or inches.”
hannah schmidt and jared schmidt train at winsport in calgary on wednesday, july 19, 2023.
heather chapin
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special to postmedia
copper equipment could become wider spread
the addition comes from a partnership between the sports institute and teck resources, with the company investing $200,000 to outfit training facilities with copper — $100,000 in calgary, and $100,000 in the summer facilities in toronto.
bringing copper to the team canada gyms is a trial run for potentially rolling out that equipment more broadly, said teck spokeswoman catherine adair.
“(we’re) really building these demonstration projects where we can prove the effectiveness as well as prove things like maintenance and durability, all the things that a facility would want to know before it invests heavily in this product,” she said.