By most standards, being nominated for more Sports Emmy Awards than any other sports show, except HBO's “Inside the NFL,” is a great accomplishment.
Adults and children alike tuned in last season to witness A-list athletes performing amazing athletic feats and to find out what makes athletes almost superhuman using science and state-of-the-art technology.
“The shows are appreciated by a lot of different audiences, different age groups and backgrounds,” Cynthia Bir, Wayne State University associate professor of biomedical engineering and leading scientist on the show, said.
"In all the shows, we've applied the tools developed in the lab to record, measure and map the speed, force and range of the human body, specifically the athlete. The final product is not only entertaining, but educational.”
In its second season, the show is raising the bar. Not only are the athletes bigger, faster and stronger, but the show is also bringing excitement to the classroom. Bir is creating curriculum kits for a mixture of segments of each show.
The kits will give high school teachers the tools to teach particular scientific topics in an exciting new way.
This season, the athletes will go head-to-head with all-stars in their own fields such as veteran S.W.A.T. officers, legendary rock and roll drummers, stuntmen and even other species, including attack dogs and an ostrich.
In one episode, using pressure sensors in a punching bag, scientists test Ultimate Fighting Championship's Rampage Jackson's punching power and compare it to the impact of two sumo wrestlers colliding.
“It is interesting to see athletes compared to some of the elite professionals in other fields,”
In its first year, Sports Science was nominated for Outstanding Production Design/Art Direction, Outstanding Graphic Design, Technical Achievement and Outstanding Editing awards. This season the show has collected five Sports Emmy nominations.
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