10 Technologies Transforming SportsBy Amy Grossman
Catching Air Pierre-Luc Gagnon practices for the upcoming X Games at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., Wednesday, July 29, 2009. Behind the scenes, technology is working to make athletes like Gagnon faster, safer, stronger and wiser (at least about their own abilities).
Nowadays, it's hard to tell the jocks from the geeks. Athletes capitalize on advances from engineering, material science, biomechanics, communication and information technologies to maximize training and performance. And brainiacs develop technologies that are transforming every aspect of sport, including coaching, judging, even the design of sports arenas and spectator experience. From athletes to manufacturers, everyone is seeking a competitive edge. Another wellspring for innovation is the military. Starting in World War II -- and escalating since the end of the Cold War -- innovations developed for the battlefield, such as synthetic fibers and graphite, have found their way onto the sport fields. The common element between the military and sports is obvious, says professor Mike Caine, director of the Sports Technology Institute at Loughborough University in the U.K. "Both focus on human performance." To date, most advances in sports technology have been in material science and design. Aerospace engineer Kim B. Blair, founder of the Sports Innovation Group LLC, an affiliate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, thinks the playbook is changing. "We've hit a plateau," he says. "The next big thing is the information revolution." These advances will move all developments into the computer era, where everything will be tracked, monitored, optimized, refined and disseminated in ways that athletes can't possibly imagine. Here, in alphabetical order, is our list of 10 technologies that are changing the way sports are practice, played, scored and watched: |
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