Sunday, April 6, 2008

A better write-up

Here's a much more elaborate article on the impact of technological advancements on Sports:

Technology in sport: A boon as well as a curse

Section: Sports
By: ROHIT BRIJNATH
Publication: The Straits Times 01/04/2008
GREATNESS is not found by simply pulling on a reduced-drag, superbly-buoyant swimming costume before a race. It comes instead from the constant wearing of pain.

When asked in retirement what about swimming he ached for, Ian Thorpe replied: "I miss pushing myself to the point where it almost brings you to tears."

Swimsuits don't break records, but they offer at least a technological helping hand.

In recent times, 17 world records have reportedly been broken by swimmers wearing Speedo's LZR Racer suit.

Of course, these athletes were tuned for the trials, and/or driven by the desperation that is unique to Olympic years. Still, the swimsuits probably played a walk-on part in this athletic theatre.

Some of it may merely be psychological, the confidence an athlete draws from believing his equipment is superior. Some of it may be real, though gauging precisely how much a suit benefits the swimmer, or a recurved fibreglass-coated bow assists the archer, is impossible.

Is it 0.02 seconds, is it 2 per cent? Either way it is an advantage.

In the ancient Olympics, athletes competed naked and supposedly pure, but the new world of the fancy-spike-wearing athlete is not some curse.

After all, while records are broken because of the athlete's insane commitment (a runner once insisted he peed blood after training) and unique physiology (Michael Phelps' body shape), science and technology have become our allies in the redefining of athletic limits.

The man with the most advanced cycle will not win Olympic gold, but it is hard to win Olympic gold without an advanced cycle.

How much faster can our species run? More pertinently, is there a finish line beyond which we cannot leap? Perhaps, but part of the reason we haven't hit yet this athletic wall is technology.

The margins by which records are now set have, and will, become smaller. Once timings in athletics were done to a tenth of a second; eventually it will be to a thousandth of a second. And in this hyper-competitive world, every, minuscule, advantage helps.

It is why nations invest in laboratory testing, biomechanics, wind tunnels. It is why corporations manufacture lightweight spikes, fast tracks and pools with sophisticated lane ropes that prevent waves.

It is why athletes study their stride patterns on computers and know to the gram how much to eat. It is an unending search to tune the body; it is man's desperate pursuit of an athletic edge.

But occasionally there is a wailing over technology's intrusion and influence, and a plaintive wishing for a return to the purity of wooden rackets and golf clubs that aren't so forgiving.

Tennis' new rackets, which resemble Thor's Hammer, have leached subtlety from the game and assisted in the volley's extinction (who misses passing shots anymore?).

But heftier rackets have also resulted in accelerated shot-making, bewitching spin and athletes whose ability to be centimetre-accurate while moving and hitting at 150kmh is staggering.

Still, as in golf, as power has come in tennis, variety has slipped away.

But the real curse to technological progress lies in the creation of an unequal playing field.

A flume (a sort of swimming treadmill) is unheard of in many African nations, a bio-mechanics laboratory is an unaffordable luxury in some South-east Asian countries, and computerised diets would be laughed at in numerous South American nations.

Sports' new, unadulterated truth is that a medal, in many disciplines, requires a passionate heart but also a substantial treasure chest.

Despite the evident athleticism of the African athlete, it is startling, and sad, that at the Athens Olympics the entire African continent won 35 medals while Germany alone won 49.

Opportunity (with technology in hand) evidently does not knock in some parts of the world.

But inequality is life's reality, and sport is no different. So the new swimsuit, a marvellous invention (whose fairness though is under dispute), will eventually be available to any swimmer on the planet, yet in a manner of speaking will also be out of reach for many on the planet because it will cost roughly $870.

This swimsuit may help take man further than he has ever gone before, but perhaps it also takes him further away from his less privileged fellow men.