<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elite\nsports, being a frontier activity, is often looking for the edges of, mainly\ntechnological, developments. Frequently elite sports is one of the first field\nto embrace new technologies. Some people start to wonder if sports is like the\n\u201cgood old\u201d sports of one-hundred years ago, with its core values of\nsportsmanship, fair play, level playing field, courage, determination,\netc. Fortunately we have to say: no, I\nam happy that sports has evaluated like society has, it no longer is an\nisolated activity with its own culture and rules, isolated from what happens\noutside of the sports arena.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Looking at\nmodern sports training and competitions, some people have this feeling of, in\nmy opinion, misplaced nostalgia. \u201cwhen I was young, everything was different\u201d.\nAnd with \u201cdifferent\u201d, they actually mean: better. These people have to learn to\naccept the fact that sports changes fast, new sports appear (extreme sports,\nadventure sports, new combat sports, fun sports), and classic sports seem to be\ndeclining, for several reasons like weightlifting, boxing, wrestling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is the\ninfluence of our society. In our\nanxious, politically-correct and risk-avoiding\nsociety one sees an opposite movement like e.g. the appearance of dangerous adrenaline\nsports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As far as\nthe influence of technology goes, even if competitive sports is mainly a\ncompetition between humans, we now can see combat between primitive robots\n(robot wars), robot soccer competitions, or computers beating humans in chess\nand go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Human\nathletes almost always use tools in their competition, starting with sword and\nshield of the gladiators, to the spears and \narmor of the knight during a tournament. (never forget that sports\noriginally stems from the preparation for hunting or combat). In most sports we\nsee the development of specific equipment, like clothing (swim suits) , bikes,\nrackets, bats, poles for pole-vault, footwear, skates, skis, synthetic tracks\nand turf, etc. And what to think about sailing boats or race cars? (btw. what\nis the contribution of the human pilot and the quality of the car?) <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In\ntraining, many technologies are used for testing, monitoring and analysis, or\nfor recovery: video recording, power measurements, GPS, etc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another\nissue here is the para-Olympic athlete, using better and faster light-weight\nwheel chairs or blades with better elastic properties for running or jumping.\nDo we see the slow appearance of the cyborg athlete?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Other medical\ninterventions also impact human sports performance, like as in normal life\npeople might undergo cosmetic surgery to improve themselves, athletes are\nhaving surgery like the Tommy John surgery of the elbow in baseball, to throw\nfaster. Or Tiger Woods had his eyes improve by laser therapy in order to see\nthe hole better. (hard to strike a hole in one of you cannot even see the hole\nwith your normal, natural eyesight).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Medications\nalso might impact human performance, and I am not talking banned substances\nhere, how many athletes cannot train\noptimally and thus perform at their \u201cnatural\u201d best, without have to use\npainkillers of anti-inflammatories?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Interesting\nenough people who are involved in anti-doping view the use of medication to\nable to perform at ones best as an unwanted activity, while themselves using\nthe athlete as guinea-pigs taking urine, blood, saliva, DNA, tracking them 24\/7 and harassing them at any\ntime of the day or viewing and treating athletes as a subhuman species.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gene\ntechnologies have the future as biomedical interventions. Gene modification is\nalready in use, also in sports. Creating\nand modifying organisms in the way we want to, is an age-old activity, think\nabout cultivating plants and flowers or breeding animals. But if we talk about\nmodifying, or better, improving human beings, in many people the tone of voice\nchanges. Genetic modification is by some considered \u201cplaying God\u201d, but don\u2019t\nworry we already are playing God all the time. We consider ourselves as\nthinking and therefor superior organisms, controlling and modifying this small\nplanet and everything on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Does the\nimpact of technologies lead to de-humanization of sports?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. if the\nanswer is yes, than one has to accept that normal life also leads to de-humanization\nas well<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2.\ncompetition is an inherent quality of living organisms (plants in combat with\ninsects, trees competing with each other for sunlight, animals competing for\nfood and territory. Robots, until now, hardly feel the drive to be better than\nothers, they don\u2019t know the euphoria of winning or the sadness of losing. Only\ntheir designers and programmers might. In short, no humans, no competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3.\ntechnology does not take out the intrinsic fun of sports, with fun there is no\nsports. If there is no fun, one can only keep training and competing by\nexternal motivation, like the pressure of parents or peers, contracts or money,\nfor a limited period of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. for\nadult athletes, participation on sports is a voluntary choice, for young\nathletes read above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On a more\npersonal level, I still remember the day I broke two personal bests in the 100\nmeter and 400 meter, just an hour before I picked up a pair of brand new\nspikes. So did the spikes make me run\nthat fast or was it myself, allowing to run faster than ever. Even if the\nspikes contributed those spikes did not\nrun fast without my feet in it), they allowed me to get the best out of myself,\nif it was only the placebo effect and the euphoria of the new spikes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I can see\nwhere elite sports is going and if I agree or not, it is better to understand\nwhy it is going into some direction and it is up to my athletes and myself to\nchoose that road or not, and get out of sports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For further\nreading: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Magdalinski,\nT: Sport, Technology and the Body<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tamburrini,\nC; Tammsjo, T: Genetic Technology and Sport<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ross, S:\nHigher, further, faster. Is technology improving sport?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miah, A: Genetically\nModified Athletes<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mehlman,\nM.J: Wondergenes : genetic enhancement and the future of society<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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