The Paris Olympics, which have just drawn to a close, were not only a contest of muscle and sweat, but also a grand collision between science and human potential. This carnival of mass participation ignited the enthusiasm of audiences around the world, generated countless talking points full of wit and humour, and carried both the charm of sport and the depth of culture to a climax. In the field of sports science, cutting-edge multi-omics technologies — proteomics, metabolomics, genomics and more — are now decoding the "black box" of the athlete's body with unprecedented precision, capturing subtle changes invisible to the naked eye.
#Zheng Qinwen Wins Gold #VekicSmashing Her Racket
In 35°C heat, Zheng Qinwen fought for three consecutive days; exhausted in body and mind yet fired with determination, she spoke for countless athletes: "Even if I am utterly exhausted, if my country calls on me, I would still fight for another three hours."
Although most people cannot experience the extreme training of professional athletes, it is well known that regular exercise improves health and lowers disease risk. In exploring the molecular mechanisms behind the benefits of exercise and the adaptive response to endurance training, multi-omics technologies have revealed a broad series of biological insights, covering extensive regulation across immunity, metabolism, stress responses and mitochondrial pathways. Many of these changes are relevant to human health — including non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, inflammatory bowel disease, cardiovascular health, and tissue injury and recovery — providing a valuable resource for understanding and exploring the multi-tissue molecular effects of endurance training.
MoTrPAC Study Group Primary authors, Amar D, Gay N R, et al. Temporal dynamics of the multi-omic response to endurance exercise training[J]. Nature, 2024, 629(8010): 174-183.
#US Swim Team Turns Purple
#Pan Zhanle Not a Single Drop of Urine Is Their Own
After the women's 4x100 m relay at the Paris Olympics, the faces and bodies of the four American swimmers showed a striking purple colour; even half an hour after the medal ceremony, this mysterious "purple buff" had still not faded. Netizens let their imaginations run wild, joking that they might have drunk Thanos' potion by mistake and turned into "purple sweet potatoes."
This scene also became a hot topic on social platforms, inevitably bringing the "anti-doping programme" to mind. As technology advances day by day, doping detection technologies are evolving too, guarding the purity of sport with greater precision and breadth so that every drop of sweat falls on a clean track. Urine, blood and even hair samples have become the "scouts" of testing. Urine is the first choice because it is easy to obtain and shows significant doping residues; blood, although slightly more cumbersome to collect, can reveal deeper secrets and serves as an effective complement to urine testing; and the introduction of hair samples provides powerful detection of long-term, low-dose doping use.
New proteomics technologies for detecting peptide hormones (such as human growth hormone) have solved the long-standing problem of a short detection window, making testing more comprehensive and reliable.
#Feng Ziqi Bleeds from the Corner of Her Eye
#Her Eye and the National Flag Are Both Red
In the wrestling events at the Paris Olympics, Feng Ziqi, competing at the Olympics for the first time, took the bronze medal in the women's freestyle 50 kg category. In the final stage of the match she was injured and bleeding from the corner of her eye, yet was completely unaware of it.
Feng Ziqi: "Perhaps because I won the match and got the medal, I didn't feel any pain."
Netizens: "This is glory fought for with everything she had — brilliant!"
In high-intensity competitive sport, athletes constantly push themselves to the limit and may encounter all kinds of injuries, from minor abrasions and sprains to severe fractures, ligament tears and even concussion. Concussion deserves particular attention: it is a common sports injury, and studies have shown that insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) and IGF-binding protein 5 (IGFBP5) can serve as biomarkers of sport-related concussion. Compared with healthy controls, both markers are downregulated in the urine of concussed athletes. Non-invasive biomarkers identified in this objective and effective way may help to diagnose and monitor sport-related concussion during the acute phase of injury and in the days that follow.
Daisy C C, Varinos S, Howell D R, et al. Proteomic discovery of noninvasive biomarkers associated with sport-related concussions[J]. Neurology, 2022, 98(2): e186-e198.
#Harimoto Breaks Down
In the men's table tennis team semi-final, Japan was leading 2-0 and Harimoto Tomokazu was leading 2-0 in the deciding match, yet suffered a dramatic reversal and lost 2-3 to Sweden, missing the final; Harimoto's composure collapsed and he fell to his knees in tears.
On the intense stage of competitive sport, athletes must cope not only with physical challenges but also with enormous psychological pressure. Research has found that stressful experiences leave lasting marks in the brain through specific epigenetic markers (such as H3K27me1), and that these marks may be linked to later behavioural and mental health problems. This provides molecular-level insight into how early-life stress or persistent stress shapes an individual's long-term behavioural outcomes. By understanding the molecular mechanisms of stress, we may be able to offer athletes better psychological support, help them face challenges on and off the field with a healthier mindset, and better manage and mitigate the impact of stress.
Torres-Berrío A, Estill M, Ramakrishnan A, et al. Monomethylation of lysine 27 at histone 3 confers lifelong susceptibility to stress[J]. bioRxiv, 2023: 2023.05. 08.539829.
#Paris Olympics Canteen
#"Dry Lunch" Invades the Olympic Table
It has to be said that, from the preparations onwards, countries have complained constantly about the French Olympic village, with many reporting poor food quality and unsatisfactory taste. The catering at the Paris Olympics emphasized the combination of environmental principles and French cuisine, with 60% of the food vegetarian, the aim being to reduce the carbon footprint and halve the average carbon footprint of each meal.
For athletes, personalized nutrition is extremely important. China's National Institute of Sports Medicine sent more than ten national team dietitians who, under anti-doping safeguards, provided nutritional support to the participating teams throughout the Games and adjusted their plans in real time. In nutrition and health science, metabolomics can not only lay a solid scientific foundation for personalized nutrition assessment and health strategy design by resolving in fine detail the dynamic changes of metabolites in the body after a meal, but also use biomedical big data technologies to mine potential biomarkers, build individualized disease risk models for populations, assess and predict risk, deliver targeted interventions and provide precise health guidance.
Brennan L, de Roos B. Role of metabolomics in the delivery of precision nutrition[J]. Redox Biology, 2023, 65: 102808.
As the curtain slowly falls on the Paris Olympics, the thrilling images of competition gradually fade from view. But what stays with us is not merely the numbers on the medal table; it is also a deep appreciation of the sporting spirit and an unbounded longing for scientific exploration. From the peak performance of athletes to the everyday health maintenance of ordinary people, the reach of multi-omics research is extending into every corner of life, bringing us insights that go far beyond what appears on the surface.
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