Olympics
Cross-country and biathlon skiers competing in the 2014 Winter Paralympics may have an advantage over skiers who have competed in previous games. This time around, some of them might be using custom-optimized ski sledges, made by a consortium including Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials. Read More
It may have been likened to a bicycle helmet, but that hasn't stopped the Japan Sport Council from selecting Zaha Hadid Architect's design for a new Japanese national stadium to be built by 2019. It's hoped that the design for the 80,000-seat stadium will boost Tokyo's chances of hosting the 2020 Summer Olympics. Read More
When the US Bobsled Team hits the ice at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games, they’ll be doing it in a BMW. The team hasn’t won a gold medal in two-man bobsledding since 1936, so the USA Bobsled & Skeleton Federation (USBSF) asked the automaker to design them a faster sled – and it did just that. Read More
If you can’t be bothered to head to London, but still want some Olympic excitement, London 2012, the official game of the event (one of them, anyway) has come to Windows, Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and OnLive. Gizmag raced the Xbox 360 version once around the track: read on to see if wins a gold medal. Read More
Before competing, professional cyclists jump on a trainer and ride to warm-up, but muscles can lose this heat if there's a time delay between the warm-up and the start of the race. In an effort to plug this gap and gain the tiny advantage that's so critical in top-level sport, adidas has created ADIPOWER muscle warming garments - a pair of track pants with a battery-powered heater, helps keep muscles at the right temperature. Read More
With the Olympics just days away, one of the more intriguing structures of London 2012 has come into focus. BMW has fully revealed its Olympic Park Pavilion. We took our first look at the BMW's pavilion earlier this month, and now the German automaker with strong British ties (BMW brands include MINI and Rolls Royce) has provided a full tour. Read More
The London skyline has been used for celebratory illuminations quite a bit in 2012. First Tower Bridge was decked out in LEDs for the Queen's Jubilee, then a laser show marked the inauguration of Europe's tallest building, the Shard. Now the London Eye has been transformed into a social media driven light show for the Olympics. Read More
A controversy during the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics was Speedo's introduction of its drag reducing LZR Racer swimming outfit. The suit worked so well that it was subsequently outlawed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA) as the technological equivalent of doping - it gave too large an advantage. Now, with the help of ANSYS simulation software, and just in time for the 2012 London Summer Olympics, Speedo has introduced the Fastskin3 racing system, which offers a new and apparently legal approach to drag reduction during competitive swimming. Read More
It's July, which means the London 2012 Summer Games are less than a month away. For the average world citizen, that means simply clearing a little time in his or her schedule to cheer on their country. For BMW and Serie Architects, it means overseeing the finishing touches on a massive pavilion that includes an integrated waterfall. Read More
Chemistry isn't about to be left out of the buzz surrounding the upcoming 2012 Summer Olympics in London. British chemists have collaborated with IBM Research - Zurich to develop and image a molecule just 1.2 nanometers wide that looks like the five Olympic rings. Read More
