Progressive Changes In The Way Sport example essay topic

At the first Modern Olympics results were recorded without any great attention to detail. High jumpers and pole-vaulters did not use landing mats, there were no stop watches and no photo finishes. In 1900, the winner of the 100 metres, American Francis Jarvis, was recorded as "the winner by one foot from Walter Tewksbury, who beat Australian Stan Rowley by inches". The stop-watch and the camera did not appear at the Olympics until the 1932 Games in Los Angeles. The camera was used to decide a winner when the naked eye and the stop-watch could not separate Americans Eddie Tolan and Ralph Metcalfe. Newsreel film was offered to the judges and after several hours Tolan got the gold medal, although both runners broke the world record at 10.3 seconds.

Today, technology has a more profound effect on sport than it did in those early years, by literally changing the way most sports are played. Cycling is a fine example. Francesco Moser, a world record holder, places as much importance on technology as he does on his ability or will to win. In his successful world record attempt everything he did, wore and rode had been scientifically designed to spur him on for victory. Each component of his bicycle was tested in one of the multi-million dollar wind tunnels at the centre for cycling technology in Italy. Aerodynamics and equipment design are vital to world class performance: super light Kel var bike frames and composite discs wheels, handlebar design, tear-drop shaped helmets and silk tyres filled with helium all contribute to faster times.

Not only the high-tech sports are affected but natural and unencumbered sports like swimming. Pools are now designed to minimise wave interference and provide greater grip for kick-turns off the wall. After measuring the force transferred to the starting platform, swimmers no longer swing their arms in a start, but instead grip the platform for greater leverage. The freestyle stroke has changed from the conventional straight-arm action to an efficient "S" motion that enables swimmers to move their hands towards water that has not already been pushed backwards by the initial phase of the stroke. The stroke also increases their buoyancy and reduces drag in the water. The design of the javelin has been changed to make technique more important than power.

With limited areas within 400 m running tracks javelins were landing dangerously close to the tracks around sports arenas, so a new design, requiring a more sophisticated throwing technique was developed. This design, with a new weight distribution prevents the javelin from "floating" and shortens flight time and distance. Sprinters are starting to wear body-hugging outfits made of lycra and silk, which reduce wind resistance and can cut up to a tenth of a second off their times. In a sport that measures progress in hundredths of seconds, this can mean a medal.

In 1992 Dave Johnson, an American decathlete ran his fastest ever leg in a 4 x 400 m relay while wearing a pair of inflatable sprinting shoes called the Insta-Pump. The new shoe, developed by Reebok, has several internal chambers which are inflated with a hand-held canister of carbon-dioxide. Medical science has also helped shape the athlete's training program. Before the 1980's athletes were expected to compete in all national and international competitions as a form of training but now their performance is tailored to fit into a structured schedule to prevent fatigue and aid in peaking. New training methods developed by sports science help prevent injury and reduce the recovery time between workouts. Machines such as pneumatic weight machines, precisely control the velocity of an athletes movements to prevent damage to the joints.

Athletes can also stimulate their muscles by applying electricity to them with a battery-operated micro current device. Less pain and more gain is now the emphasis of training for athletes with a greater emphasis being placed on training efficiently. The technological contribution to sport has closed the gap between Olympic athletes and raised the standard across the range of competitions. Still, outstanding athletes continue to appear and dominate sports despite of hi-tech changes and challenges. During the past 10 years the competition between nations in sports technology has been likened to the arms race. As long as technology can impact and improve performance of athletes, the Olympic Games will continue to reflect the progressive changes in the way sport is played.