From The Guardian: London 2012 Olympics: How athletes use technology to win medals
Ever since the first ancient Greek chipped away at a lump of stone to give it the smooth, aerodynamic properties of a discus, sportsmen and engineers have been looking at ways to enhance performance – while some of those denied medals have been crying foul. Continue reading Weekend Reading List (7.7.2012): Olympic Tech, Basketball Missile Tracking, Sagan Dances, Running Adventure
One of the marvels of 3D printing is that it allows designers to make small modifications during the prototype stage. Even not so small changes can be accomplished as another model can be printed off.
Luc Fusaro used this technology to develop lightweight sprint shoes that are customizable for individual runners. Fusaro developed the shoes as his final master degree solo project at the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London, and it began with him scanning the feet of an athlete to create a digital 3D model. Continue reading Sprint Spikes Developed With 3D Printing
Imagine flying half way around the world, having to sleep in a strange bed the night before a big event and then being told you can’t take a prescription sleeping pill! All that worry is probably enough to have many competitors tossing and turning, but this is no joke!
The Australian Olympic Committee announced that it amended its team medical manual to prohibit the use of Stilnox and other zolpidem related drugs by athletes at the Olympics. The reason is that former Olympic swimming champion Grant Hackett said he became heavily reliant on the sleeping pills at the end of his career.
So the committee has responded by saying that there is an “obligation… to protect the health of our athletes.” But isn’t serious insomnia a health problem as well?
How ridiculous does some of this get? Well, consider that the World Anti-Doping Agency once considered caffeine a performance enhancer and it was on the list of banned substances. That has since changed, but it still doesn’t address how athletes with insomnia will deal at bedtime.
The Australian Olympic Committee has made a few other questionable decisions this year. Two Aussie swimmers, Nick D’Arcy and Kenrick Monk, have added a self-imposed social media ban prior to the games. The reason is that the pair visited a California shooting range in June and posed for pictures with “high-powered pistols [sic] and shotguns.” The AOC reacted to their posting the photos online.
“They showed poor judgement in posting what we saw as inappropriate photos, in which they appear to be skylarking with guns while in the US last week,” said Swimming Australia CEO Kevin Neil. “While what the boys did was not illegal, posting the photos on social networks encourages public debate, and that debate can be seen to have a negative impact on the image of the sport and their own image.”
The pair are adults and visited a legal gun shop so we see no problem? Of course we wonder if members of the Australian Olympic Team competing in shooting sports will be allowed to post photos of themselves with their firearms?
While the Olympic trials are underway gamers can get a chance to go for the gold beginning this week. SEGA of America announced the release of London 2012 – The Official Video Game of the Olympic Games for the Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation 3.
The game will offer single and multiplayer completion and will feature support for the Kinect for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation Move.
This will allow gamers to get off the couch and not just watch the events but see if they have the stuff to go all the way. There is even an Online Multiplayer mode that allows players to show their National Pride as points go towards a global leader board.
So if you didn’t qualify for the games, don’t have a plane ticket to London and can’t wait until July 27 to watch it on TV, now is your chance to go to the game.
Designing a completely new suit for swimmers isn’t so much about going back to the drawing board as it is about going back to the desktop, and the Aqualab. That isn’t some “Bat Cave” secret base for lackluster super hero Aquaman, but it could help competitive swimmers see gold in London in a few weeks. This was also the center of a simulation that helped the designers of the revolutionary Speedo Fastskin Racing System, which utilized the engineering simulation software ANSYS.
When worn together as a complete system, a Fastskin suit, cap and goggle can reduce full-body passive drag by up to 16.6 percent, improve oxygen economy by up to 11 percent (enabling the athlete to swim stronger for longer), and reduce active body drag by up to 5.2 percent. And to help make this possible Speedo looked to ANSYS. Continue reading Fastskin Swimsuit Comes from the Aqualab
From BikeRumor: Brave or Brazen? Underground Bike Messenger Races Explored in the New Line Of Sight Trailer
“Line Of Sight is a rare view into underground bicycle messenger racing which has become a global phenomenon. For over a decade Lucas Brunelle has been riding with the fastest, most skilled urban cyclists around the world while capturing all the action with his customized helmet cameras to bring you along for the ride. Continue reading Weekend Reading List (6.16.2012): Racing Messengers, Olympics Get Social, Excessive Exercise
There hasn’t been this much drama over swim attire since the bikini arrived followed World War II. With just two months until the London Olympics swimsuits are stirring up trouble. This comes in the wake of the Speedo LZR Racer Elite was banned following the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008.
The Speedo LZR Racer Elite was notably worn by Olympic gold metalist Michael Phelps, and after the games aquatic leaders banned all rubberized bodysuits. This was thought to be the end of the technological “arms race” that stirred up the trouble in the first place. Bob Bowman, coach of Phelps has gone on the record to say that the suit matters and helps, but that it doesn’t change the swimmer. In other words the Speedo LZR Racer Elite doesn’t make Phelps transform into Aquaman. Continue reading Swimsuit Drama Continues
While many of us no doubt look to kill some time during the day, at the Olympic Games keeping time is crucial. And with the London 2012 Games the official Olympic timekeepers Omega will be unveiling the latest technology to track the various competitions.
It can reportedly monitor athletes’ performance to the nearest one thousandth of a second. But this is more than just a stopwatch. This year’s games will see 450 professional timekeepers, supported by about 800 trained volunteers, working 420 tons of equipment that includes 390 scoreboards, 180 kilometers of cables and armed with the latest time keeping devices. His is a long way from the single timekeeper using 27 stop watches in the Berlin Games in 1936!
Omega Olympic Timekeeping History
BBC History of Olympic timings
Many cities have questionable air quality, but London is one of those places where you can sometimes see the air – and that’s not going to be a good thing for the athletes in the upcoming Olympic Games. This isn’t the old London fog that is a problem, but rather the pollution.
Researchers at the University of Leicester have now released details on what could be the first of its kind instrument to measure and monitor the nitrogen dioxide emissions in a 360 degrees panorama. This technology, known as CityScan can monitor the impact of increased traffic on pollution levels. The irony it seems is that pollution will increase because of the games and that won’t be good for those competing.
At least the athletes can get a sense of how bad things are and hopefully prepare for it.
When we think of BMW we don’t think of the Olympics and we certainly don’t think about swimming – in fact the only time we even think of German cars and water is that scene in Risky Business where Tom Cruise goes deep with the Porsche.
But now BMW, which has in the past aided long jumpers, is getting all wet helping USA Swimming prepare for the Olympics. So how is the company involved? According to the press release:
This latest effort will provide quantitative analysis of swimmers’ starts and turns – critical to success in the sport – via a unique motion tracking system. This technology initiative is central to BMW’s comprehensive U.S. Olympic program which endeavors to advance the performance goals of Team USA while bringing communities across the country closer to the excitement of the Olympic Games. Continue reading BMW Motion Tracking Helping Swimmers
Motion capture technology has been used in the creation of movies and video games, and even used by athletes to identify problems with their technique. However, it typically requires athletes to go to a studio or environment designed for motion capture not training. Moreover athletes can only see the results afterwards. But a new suit might give athletes on the fly feedback during training. Researchers at Birmingham City University have developed a wearable device called the “Vibrating Suit,” which can be worn just about anywhere, and more importantly can provide feedback in real time. Video after the jump
This week the British Team Sky Pro Cycling announced that it has extended its agreement with TrainingPeaks to be the official supplier of training software for the 2012.This will allow Team Sky to continue to collect and monitor heart rate and power from each individual rider during training and racing, and utilize it in TrainingPeaks by team coaches and staff. Riders can futher adjust their own training program and regiment based on the fitness trends shown in the software.
It will be interesting to see how it helps Olympic gold medalist Bradley Wiggins, who will likely be racing in the London Olympics this summer, as well as current world champion and 2011 Tour de France green jersey winner Mark Cavendish this season. With both hoping for a potentially “golden” summer we’re sure they’ll be spending a lot of time using this data. While it probably is not as much time as they spend on the bike, but still enough to show that software is indeed changing the way athletes train; and that is helping the way they perform.
This week Michael Phelps unveiled the Fastskin3,the new high-tech swimsuit that the Olympic champion plans to wear in next year’s games in London. While the Speedo LZR Racer, which he previously used and were used in all but two of the 25 broken record events at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, the new suits are reportedly already looking to be record breakers.
The full body high-tech suits were banned in 2009 following the World Aquatics Championships, which saw 43 more records broken, so these new designs cover less of the body, but do incorporate a cap, goggles and suit. Speedo suggests that swimmers using the suit can gain an extra 11 percent in oxygen economy, reduce skin friction drag by 2.7 percent and full body drag force by 5.7 percent from this new system, resulting in stronger performances. Video and more images after the jump