Keynote Speakers

Sports Physics 2024 Keynote Speakers

Laurent Schmitt, Professeur Agrégé EPS , CTPS, Doctorate in biology. He was formely head of the Performance, Expertise and Research Department at the Centre National de Ski Nordique et de Moyenne Montagne. He is associate researcher at the Sports Science Laboratory, UNIL, University of Lausanne, Switzerland.His research areas are:

- Hypoxia training: development of methods and monitoring.
- Heart rate variability, performance and health: fatigue typology and remedies.

Olivier Maurelli, Former international handball player, Doctor in Sports Science. 25 years' experience in physical preparation in numerous disciplines at the highest level (World, European Championships and Olympic Games). He is currently associate lecturer at the UFR STAPS in Montpellier and research associate at the Dynamisme Musculaire et Métabolisme (DMEM) laboratory. His scientific interests focus on monitoring training loads with a view to optimizing performance and preventing injury.He is head of the Research and Performance Unit at the French Handball Federation and physical trainer for the French men's A team. He is also a regular lecturer at INSEP and various universities, and regularly invited as a speaker or consultant to professional organizations. Author published by Amphora.

Jean-Manuel Roubineau. Lecturer in Ancient History at Rennes 2 University, He conducts research into the history of the body, sport and athletes in the Greco-Roman world. In particular, He has studied the emergence of the social figure of the athlete in the 6th century BC (Milon of Crotone, or the invention of sport, 2016). He then devoted his research to boxing in the Greco-Roman world (À poings fermés. Une histoire de la boxe antique, 2022), bringing together all available documentary forms (texts of all types, inscriptions, statuary, reliefs, scenes on vase, mosaics), to highlight the existence of an ancient pugilistic culture. Following on from this work, He produced an essay on the total history of ancient sport (Le Sport. Récit des premiers temps, 2024), aimed at articulating all the facets of ancient sport and highlighting the continuities between ancient and contemporary athletic practices. He is currently working on the imaginary of the gymnasium through athletic scenes painted on vases.

Vittoria Bussi, born in Rome on 19th March 1987. She obtained a degree in Mathematics at La Sapienza University of Rome in 2010 and subsequently a Doctorate in Pure Mathematics at the University of Oxford in 2014. She was a Post-Doc at Imperial College London and at the ICTP in Trieste until 2016, when she decided to change jobs and become a full-time professional cycling athlete. She held the world hour record from 2018 to 2021 covering 48,007km in Aguascalientes, Mexico. She founded a cycling team to support her career as an athlete. She wore the blue jersey on the road and on the track between 2019 and 2022. In 2023 she broke again the world hour record held by Ellen Van Dijk of 49,254km with the distance of 50,267 km becoming the first women to beat the 50km wall in cycling. 

 Nicolas Pouleau is a former national-level triathlete, swimming coach, then triathlon coach for 20 years, he structured the Rouen Triathlon club between 2007 and 2014, and was its technical director from 2014 to 2018. In 2016, he met Alexis HANQUINQUANT, who was looking for a coach and a club to support him in his performance project and Paralympic dream. In November 2016, the collaboration began with Alexis, to write one of the most beautiful stories of French triathlon and French sport. Together, they have won 2 Paralympic titles (Tokyo2020 and Paris2024), 7 European Championship titles and 7 consecutive World Championship titles. The story is not yet over, with LA 2028 on the horizon...Between 2019 and 2020, he is completely dedicated to Alexis' performance project for the Tokyo Olympic Games. During this period, he is a regular member of the French Paratriathlon team staff. In 2021, he becomes a technical manager with the French Triathlon Federation, with responsibility for training and coaching athletes of the French Paratriathlon team. He was a member of the French Paralympic Triathlon team for the Tokyo2020 and Paris2024 Games.

Jozina De Graaf is a full professor within the Faculty of Sport Sciences at Aix-Marseille University. She completed her initial studies in Movement Sciences at the University of Amsterdam, followed by a doctorate in Behavioral Neurosciences at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. Through a series of postdoctoral appointments, Professor De Graaf developed expertise as an integrative neuroscientist, investigating the adaptability of the sensorimotor system under various internal and external constraints using advanced methodologies including fMRI, TMS, EEG, and EMG. Twelve years ago, her research pivoted toward non-painful phantom sensations in individuals with limb amputations. These phantom sensations offer a robust model for investigating neural plasticity and have significant potential applications in prosthetic design and functionality for both upper and lower limb amputees. Her interdisciplinary research program integrates fundamental neuroscience with clinical and sports applications, aiming for direct translational outcomes.