Are High Performance Olympic Gymnasts Less Likely to Get Sea Sick or Motion Sickness?

It is amazing the amount of talent and ability that our Olympic gymnasts have when it comes to balance. For instance, in gymnastics we have Olympians doing incredible acrobatics on a very thin balance beam. Only rarely do they fall off, or lose their poise even in the most incredible maneuvers. This is one tough apparatus to compete on, and one can only ask; how do they do it? Years and years and days upon end of practice, often six or more hours per day – the results are amazing and no one can disagree with that. Okay so, I’d like to pose another question to you along this line of thinking.

Would high-performance Olympic gymnasts be less prone to motion sickness or seasickness on a boat? You may not think the answer is relevant, but it actually is, it would mean that people who do training and work on their spatial techniques could prevent themselves from getting sea sick. If that were the case, then perhaps our fighter pilots, sailors, and folks in various other industries and careers might take some gymnasts tumbling classes. Perhaps they might practice on a trampoline, or doing somersault type dives off a high dive into the water.

Could it be that simple? As a pilot, I have noticed doing mild acrobatics (loops, aileron rolls, spins, etc) that it seems to help one’s spatial orientation and after a while you don’t get sick or nauseous, you don’t develop vertigo very easily and your body seems to be able to adapt to this. Still, I can also say that when you are doing the maneuvers yourselves and you are controlling the process it is much different than when someone else is doing the aerobatics and you are along for the ride such as when you are on a roller coaster. If you are ready for the maneuver, prepare yourself mentally for it, and feel as if you’re one with the aircraft during these maneuvers it’s also much easier.

Would it be the same for Olympic gymnasts? I’d say it’s time we do some studying on our top gymnasts to see if this is relevant, or if we can duplicate this in virtual-reality or augmented-reality until the humans overcome their motion sickness. Why not employee some of these Olympic gymnasts for research and development, and training to prevent motion sickness and sea sickness which impedes the performance of those doing certain tasks in certain careers? Indeed I hope you will please consider all this on a philosophical, psychological, and physiological basis.

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