New professor in Sport Science is specialized in cross-country skiing and sports for health

Stefan Lindinger has been appointed as a new professor in Sport Science at the University of Gothenburg. His research has been focused on winter sports and he has worked with several national ski associations. Recently, he has also focused on the emerging research field sports for health.

Stefan Lindinger has extensive experience as a researcher, teacher and coach. He is born in Austria and got a doctoral degree in Physical Education at the University of Salzburg in 2002. His research has been focused on biomechanics, physiology, and Kinesiology. Several studies have been directed at improving techniques and training in winters sports as cross-country skiing, biathlon, and alpine.– We have done integrative biomechanical-physiological studies to find out which movement patterns cause how much use of energy, for example oxygen consumption. So often questions of movement economy and efficiency where examined in those sports. Several research projects have also been oriented towards the examination of the “interaction between equipment – athlete – underground”, meaning that your typical movement patterns affect the equipment, for example a ski behavior, and the underground, for example snow or ice, and vice-versa. Those questions we often have analyzed in cooperation with the sport/ski industry. Similar things were done as regards running shoes.

Stefan Lindinger has been cooperating with several national ski associations, including the Swedish Ski Association. Several of his studies have been done at Swedish Wintersport Research Center at the Mid Sweden University in Östersund, They have been conducted together with professional athletes and have developed the technique as well as training programs in skiing.

Recently Stefan Lindinger has researched the use of sport for health.

– Sport for health is an important field in Sport Science research nowadays. We realized that activities in certain sports have huge bio-positive effects on human beings and a certain sport can be used like a “medicine” to enhance the status of a human body and mind in different target groups like elderly, inactive adults, inactive children, certain patient group with risk factors as hypertension, et cetera.

The studies within sport for health have among other topics examined the effects on Alpine Skiing training on elderly and people that have undergone knee surgery.

– We are on the way to apply money for a new study and examine the effects of two different sports/approaches on certain target groups: Mix of the nordic sports cross-country skiing, nordic walking, and roller skiing”, versus a mix of “game sports” as floorball and badminton. We will target different groups of society like the elderly, younger inactive people and certain patient groups.

Stefan Lindinger was first employed at the University of Gothenburg in 2017. A year later he became an associate professor and in late 2019 he was promoted as a professor at the Department of Food and Nutrition and Sport Science.

For more information, contact: Stefan Lindinger, stefan.lindinger@gu.se,, + 46 (0) 31 786 35 54 or + 46 (0) 766 18 35 54.