Innovation can encourage pessimism
27th February 2009
The Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics was a spectacular sporting event, no-one can deny it. China has set the bar extremely high for London 2012, not only in the way they hosted the Olympiad but also the level of sporting achievement.
The “Water Cube” was one of the busiest venues throughout the Games, and the attention that the swimmers created for the sport was none other than amazing - 25 world records were broken, 8 of which by Michael Phelps alone. However, there has been much discussion since the Summer Olympics ended that these world records would not have been broken in such vast numbers without the technological advancement in swimming attire.
Many of the gold medal swimmers, including Phelps and our own Rebecca Adlington, swam to victory in the latest swimsuit design to hit the sport. But during and since the Olympiad there have been many questions and debates about how many world records were smashed by the swimming ability of the athlete, or was it actually the streamlined suit they had chosen to wear.
Many coaches of teams that did not use the technology advanced suit have obviously jumped on the bandwagon to criticise the choice by many, such as the USA. The new suit invention is more lightweight than any other swimsuit in the past, and molds the athletes body so it glides more smoothly through the water, it is revolutionary - but could advanced technology actually be detrimental in this case?
Even before Beijing 2008, there was a lot of hype about the American swimmer Michael Phelps. He was already being compared with the phenomenon that was Mark Spitz, best known for winning 7 gold medals at the 1972 Munich Olympics in the swimming pool. Phelps had already won 6 golds at the last Summer Games in Athens in 2004. However, this time everything was different - not only did Phelps gather a further 8 titles in all the races he took part in, but he also broke 5 world records on the way.
As the carnival atmosphere started to die down, the debate began. Could the swimsuit that had been chosen by the US team, the model with the most technological advancements so far - including reducing friction and drag in the water, and increasing the efficiency of the swimmer’s motion forward, be the real reason for Phelps’ success? The engineers have gone as far as to base the developments of the suits on sea-based animals, sharks for example, this is obviously a massive improvement to the good ole’ original speedo!
The innovation behind this swimsuit invention is extraordinary. To enable a human-being to swim with the same skills as a fish which has evolved to live in the water, through technological advancements is quite spectacular - but it is a shame many people have not celebrated the amazing break-through. London 2012 here we come!
