Dev.SN

Technology Ruining Olympics

posted by mattie_p on Tuesday February 18 2014, @03:30PM   
from the and-now-for-sports dept.

CoolHand writes:

"Sci-Tech Today talks about the role of technology in the Olympics from a unique perspective:

Every advance in the ever-accelerating juggernaut of sports technology threatens to widen the divide between Olympic haves and have-nots. Well-sponsored teams and rich governments pay top-end scientists and engineers to shape their skis, perfect their skates, tighten their suits, measure their gravitational pull.

I'm no luddite, but this seems to make these sports more about who can afford the best tech, and less about the true spirit of the games: bringing the best athletes from all countries together to compete. How can it be about the athletes, when some of the best athletes may never win due to lack of funding/tech?"

• Re:We see this already (Score: 2, Interesting) by lubricus on Tuesday February 18 2014, @04:03PM

  by lubricus (232) on Tuesday February 18 2014, @04:03PM (#1862)

  I agree that this is something that will be difficult to "solve", mainly I was pointing out that the disproportionate effect of tech on olympics is not new, and that the winter olympics are pretty lame... especially since they are a collection of events devised by rich western countries specifically for their climate or military (the biathalon for example).

  If this were something we wanted to rectify, we would stop adding more and more complicated derivatives of existing events events (team skating, ice dancing?), and add more events focusing on individuals with minimal equipment. (the track and field events come to mind).

  --
  ... sorry about the typos

  Parent

  Starting Score:	1		point
  Moderation		+1
  Interesting=1, Total=1
  Extra 'Interesting' Modifier		0
  Total Score:		2