Olympic mystery solved: Why don’t figure skaters get dizzy?

MILAN – When Amber Glenn takes to the ice for her short program this week, she’s expected to skate a graceful routine that will end with a series of turns. If it performs as expected, the turns (more than two dozen in total) will build to a dramatic crescendo, the culmination of a meticulously crafted routine.

And millions of people watching at home will wonder: How does he do this? Very quickly then, Hey, why isn’t he vomiting on the ice right now because of dizziness?

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The answer to both questions (the ability to spin and the ability to avoid dizziness) is the same: practice. Very, very practical.

Let’s start with a basic but neurologically complex question: What exactly is dizziness? You know it when you feel it, but what exactly is it?

D., an assistant professor of neurology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. “There are many causes of dizziness, but neurologically speaking, which I think is the key here, I think dizziness is caused by dysfunction in the vestibular system,” Lindsay J. Agostinelli told Yahoo Sports in an email. “The vestibular system is an apparatus in our inner ears that detects the movement and rotation of the head, sends signals to our brain, enabling it to turn our eyes to maintain balance and prevent dizziness while moving in space.”

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Dr. Agostinelli notes that, like dancers, skaters begin to prepare for a spin by focusing on a single point in the distance while spinning, then quickly turning their heads and relocating that point. This allows them to quickly stabilize themselves and prevent dizziness.

But this method won’t quite work on ice, where skaters move five or six times per second. Dr. Agostinelli suggests that the only way to solve this problem is to break your traditional dizzy response to spinning by repeating it.

Dr. “Research studies have shown that figure skaters actually have a less reactive vestibular system, and when exposed to a ‘nauseous simulation’ that spins/spins them, they feel less motion sickness than non-skaters,” says Dr. Agostinelli. “This is probably a result of their training habituating their vestibular system.”

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Fighting dizziness is a mental battle that becomes physical. Dr. Agostinelli says: “I think that initial training requires mental stamina to combat the necessary dizziness, but the ability to perform at high speeds without dizziness is clearly a result of the physical training and desensitization process.”

Here you go. If you want to stay as sane as a skater, start spinning now. Carefully.