Techs and Specs - Technology and the Olympic games
Even though the Olympic games are all about the athletes and the spirit of competition, people seldom realise just how much technology is involved in the games themselves. Almost every sport these days is full of technological advances, and they help the athletes become faster, stronger, making the entire sport more entertaining for the viewers. This is a far cry from the days of old when people would judge the winner of a race using their eyes only; now there are cameras that are able to capture videos in 8000 frames per second. Technology will just continue to increase in the years to come.
When the Olympic games started many centuries ago in ancient Greece, technology was unheard of. It was simply athletes competing against each other. If we compare that situation to the one taking place today we can see that things are very different. Today just as technology is flooding our lives, the same way it seems to be influencing sports as well. The degree of competition that has come about in recent years has increased to such a level that it has necessitated the use of high-speed cameras and video replays to get an idea of the winner. The days of winning by a foot are things of the past, unless your name happens to be Usain Bolt. Nowadays athletes win by a tenth of a second and everything is done to reduce those parts of seconds even further. This is where technology comes into play today, shaving of the milliseconds to help an athlete beat an opponent or break a world record. Technology plays a big part in training and in actual competition as well.
A competition was launched in the UK a few years ago to find inventors and product designers to innovate products and techniques that could help athletes in UK gain an edge over their competitors. Whatever technology that was to be invented would only be used in training and was not allowed in the actual events but in helping athletes prepare for a race. A group of ordinary friends from England eventually came up with two ideas, one of which eventually won the prize money on offer. The first idea was to invent a piece of technology that would enable relay runners to make smoother handovers of the baton to their team mates. This involved an ear-piece and sensors that allowed the runners to judge when their teammate was getting close, and then they were able to judge the distance. But this idea met with concern from the panel of judges because it was felt that athletes would become too reliant on the technology and lost without it during an actual race. The other idea which was eventually chosen by the judges and won the prize is so secretive that no one knows what it is. The only thing that we do know about it is that it is a piece of technology that will help swimmers gain a significant edge.
Technology has influenced the Olympics in other ways as well, not just in the sports themselves. The medals that were used at the Vancouver Winter Olympics 2010 were made from recycled gold, silver and bronze that can be found in discarded circuit boards. The Royal Canadian Mint then fashioned them into exquisite medals for the athletes. The Olympic torch that was designed by Bombardier for the Winter Olympics was able to withstand gale force winds and still stay alight. Even an obscure sport like curling got in the technology act by adding sensors in the hand grip of the curler and a sensor strip in the ground to make sure the athlete’s hand released it before it crossed the line.
Technology will continue to be a big part of sports for many years to come. The speed of technological advancement in games will only increase and changes will take place much quicker. The Olympics are interesting in this regard because as they are held after four years, the rapid pace of technology allows for changes to occur very quickly and in four year’s time many new things are invented. The future looks very exciting with all the technological changes taking place at the moment, we will have to see what is in store for the Olympics in the years to come.
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