Sports
Scientifically-designed bedrooms offer athletes a competitive advantage in Torino
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February 27, 2006 On the basis that sleep is so important and so basic that it could make the difference between winning the gold or the silver at the Olympic Games, a unique partnership has evolved for the Olympic Winter Games now taking place in Torino. With a view to giving U.S. Olympians a competitive advantage, Hilton Hotels combined with Alertness Solutions to optimize their sleep environment by incorporating a number of critical elements including enhanced bed size and bedding, a usable work area and an effective wake-up mechanism. Working with Dr. Mark Rosekind, a former NASA scientist and president of Alertness Solutions, Hilton modified 160 resident athlete dorm rooms last October at the Colorado Springs U.S. Olympic Training Center to help increase the athletes' alertness and reaction time for peak performance. Read More
New suit for athletes offers improved energy output and muscle management
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February 20, 2006 Adidas has debuted an athletic second skin at the Turin winter Olympics which it claims offers a significant improvement in energy output of the wearer. In controlled laboratory tests conducted together with the University of Calgary, the new Clima TechFit cross-country suit offers an average 5.3% improvement in energy output and 1.1% faster sprint time when measured over 30 metres. Most importantly, the tests measured a 1.3% reduction in oxygen consumption when wearing the new suit. The suit works by using compression strips that link the legs and the upper body with the power centre of the body. The suit employs a number of technologies to work its magic, one of which involves the compression strips supporting leg muscles and reducing muscle vibration and oscillation, thus reducing energy loss and muscle fatigue for better “muscle management.” The power bands embodied in the suit along key muscle groups contract and expand together with the muscles and thereby store energy when stretching and return energy when contracting back. Through the linking and interaction of all muscles, the suit enables greater efficiency to be achieved.
Sports bra monitors heart rate with built-in heart monitor
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December 23, 2005 We’ve written a lot about heart monitoring and the advances in monitoring technologies over the last few years, reporting on Adidas’ Project Fusion, the BodyBugg, Garmin’s system for cyclists, Dual Sports combined heart rate monitor and MP3 player and Polar’s RS200sd Running Computer. With the exception of the first two, all of these monitors require the wearing of a chest strap and while this is sometimes difficult and uncomfortable enough for men, it creates much more of a problem for women. Now there’s an answer from heaven - a heart sensing sports bra. Read More
Adidas readies sportswear innovation: the tackle-proof football jumper
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February 20, 2005 Adidas is set to unveil prototypes of a new football jumper that uses derivations of its ForMotion and ClimaCool clothing technologies to produce a tight-fitting jumper that conducts sweat away from the players body through a combination of heat and moisture-dissipating materials, and makes the surface of the jumper slippery and difficult to tackle. The jumper has been developed for Australian Rules Football's most famous and popular club Collingwood and could revolutionise Australian Rules and full contact sports where tackling is permitted. Adidas is a major sponsor and long term partner of the Collingwood Football Club and in the coming weeks the first prototypes of the on-field apparel concept will be delivered for evaluation. Read More
The world's most dangerous sporting event.
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January 17, 2005 It's the world's most dangerous legally-sanctioned sporting event. Every time the event is run, on average, two competitors and an unknown number of spectators die. The size of a small city, the Dakar Rally streaks for 16 days and 9000 kilometres across several countries and time zones at frightening speeds. One of the most significant events in the history of motorsport, it has direct lineage to the first auto race and all the famous city-to-city races which were banned between 50 and 100 years ago due to the carnage. So why is it still running? Read More
Aerobic Training Device Allows Skiers to train all year
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January 16, 2005 Skier's Edgenow builds a range of non-impact lateral aerobic trainers designed to improve skiing ability, lateral strength, agility, balance, endurance and overall fitness. Suitable for everyone from the novice to the most seasoned skier, the side-to-side conditioning will help take skiing abilities to the next level. The Skier's Edge Big Mountain Series will also help skiers maintain their fitness level in the off-season by specifically improving endurance and technical skiing ability. Read More
FRWD Sports Performance Recorder for athletes
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November 5, 2004 Wearable athlete management systems are set to become widespread with the release this week of the US$1000 FRWD Sport Performance Recorder ; a device which measures route, distance, altitude and speed using GPS technology along with heart rate. Like the GPS Sports unit we reported on recently, which has similar functionality, the FRWD promises a goldmine of information for all athletes in understanding their physiology and performance. Outdoor and alternative sports enthusiasts can relive their experiences second by second and compare their performance with their friends and rivals. A mountain biker can compare heart rate and speed variations... Read More
Nokia providing sporting coverage to mobile phones in US
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Nokia has begun delivering live audio broadcasts, real time scoring and streaming video highlights from American National Basketball Association (NBA) and Major League Baseball (MLB) to mobile phones in America. The system requires a Nokia 6600 imaging phone and is the first of its type, offering a glimpse of live sports action in the future. Read More
GPS Athlete Management System to revolutionise sport
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The SPI 10 is an Australian developed fitness first that records critical perfomance data via a miniature unit worn on the arm. Using GPS and heart rate monitoring technology, the SPI 10 (pronounced "spy") logs information on time, speed, distance, position, altitude and heart rate which can then be downloaded and analysed using specially designed training software. Read More
Video-capture binoculars provide Instant Replay
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November 18, 2003 The Bushnell Instant Replay is a first of its kind, 3-in-1 device that incorporates an 8X magnification optical binocular, a 2.1 megapixel digital camera and a video-capturing unit that allows you to record and view action in a continuous 30-second video loop -so there's always an instant replay at the ready. Read More
The Insider: could this be the future of live sport?
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Not only will the advance of digital technology provide us with unprecedented coverage of sporting action into our homes, it will bring digital TV along to the game with us. This is now a reality for US baseball fans thanks to a new device that combines the buzz of watching events live with the versatility of television coverage - the Insider wireless binoculars. Read More
