The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of the distance between the following skaters and their posture on the aerodynamic drag of a leading skater in the team pursuit event of speed skating by conducting wind tunnel experiments. Three full-scale human models were placed in a tandem arrangement, with four different distances (0.8, 0.9, 1.0 and 1.2 m) between the models. For the first model, the upper torso angle of attack α was always set to 0°. For the two following models, α was set to three different values (0, 20 and 40°) . Four combinations of posture conditions (A-D) were used for the three models. For each posture, A: two following skaters had α of 0°; B: the second and the third had α of 20°; C: the α of the following skaters the second and the third were 20° and 40° respectively; D: two following skaters had α of 40°. These combinations were planned so that the total projection area of the following skaters was larger in the order A<B<C<D. The results indicated that the distance between the three athletes, if within 1.2 m, in the team pursuit formation can reduce the drag of the leading skater. Furthermore, the largest reduction in drag was observed at 0.8 m, which is the smallest distance between the three skaters in this study, indicating that the smaller the distance between the skaters, the greater the reduction in drag. It was also clear that the posture of the following skaters (large upper torso angle of attack) can also reduce the drag of the leading skater. In addition, it was suggested that even changes in the posture of the third skater as well as the second skater could affect the aerodynamic drag of the leading skater.
https://ror.org/01tx1rq25 