Technology in Sports
Sports being one of the oldest inventions of mankind have seen a great evolution over the years. There have been inventions of different types of sports over the years and the list of sports keeps getting longer. A sport in ancient times was just a recreational activity but it has evolved into more than just recreation. While to some it is a recreational activity, to others it is a source of income. The competition has grown globally and countries take pride in various sports. Sports not only being a source of pride it also creates patriotism when people are brought together by the national teams.
Technology on the other hand is on a fast lane of development. With the current technology, it makes you feel like you were in the Stone Age a couple of decades ago. Everyone is incorporating technology in their every activity, may it be at home, work, or even with friends. Technology has taken over our health sectors, education sectors, banking sectors, and industrial sectors and the sports sector has not been left out. In recent years we have seen technology incorporated in a number of sports.
Technology in sports has been used for assistance to referees in decision-making (West, 2013). Some of the technologies used in assistance to referees include the goal line technology, the video replay system, communication technology, and the hawk-eye technology.
The goal-line technology is used in football to assist the referee in awarding of goals during a close call. The world of football took a huge step by using the goal line technology in the 2014 FIFA World Cup for the first time (Goldman, S. 2015). The goal-line technology uses fourteen cameras to assist the referee in either awarding or denying a goal when it is unclear if the ball passed the goal line. The technology has been of help to solve disputes on the football pitch that formally saw referees being accused of favouring one team.
We also have the use of video replay systems used in refereeing sports. Some of the sports using the video replay system include tennis cricket, rugby, and baseball and the world of football is preparing to follow suit on the same (Baker, 2013). The video replay system helps referees to make clear calls on offences that might not have been obvious or the referee might not have seen. This technology has played a major role in the fairness of competitive sports activities.
Communication technology is used where the referee is assisted by other match officials. In the technology, the match officials including the referee have an earpiece. For example in football referees receive communication of a substitute wanting to happen from the fourth official using the communication technology (Bird, 2015).
Rather than decision-making, technology has also helped in the health upkeep of sportsmen and women. There are products that have been developed to improve and increase the athletic performance of sports people. Though there are products that are illegal which after use are considered to be doping, there are legal products that improve the performance of athletes. Through technology, it’s also possible to monitor the performance of an athlete during a sporting activity. This creates awareness in the medical team if the athlete needs any medical attention (support, 2015).
During Olympics, newer and better technologies are released to improve the performances of the athletes. In the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, the best technologies in the Olympics were released. These technologies included improvements in speed skating sport where the skaters were provided with slicker skating suits that had “flow-moulding” to cut the drag behind the skater. Another improvement in the 2014 Olympics was the installation of sensors to bobsleds which were used to transmit live feeds for the races to the viewers and even the participants in those races (Baker, 2015) is improvement was important as it provided the feeds in real-time. This achievement is used until today and to me, it is one of the best innovations in sports. Today, you just sit and relax in the comfort of your house and watch a live sport in real-time as it takes place.
Technology has also affected the NFL positively in recent years. After former National Football League players filed a case regarding the NFL not implementing proper methods to protect its players from concussions that cause trauma in the brain which can lead to death, there was development of smart helmets. These helmets have sensors and use magnet technology to reduce the risk of brain injury in American football. There are two types of these helmets. The first helmet is the Riddell Insite helmet which measures the impact of collision by use of its sensor pads. The other helmet is the Speeflex which reduces direct impact to the head. This helmet also diagnoses the concussion immediately using the appropriate procedures and notifies if the player should play or leave the field in case of a brain injury. This technology can also be used to protect other players in other risky games like rugby and hockey once it is finalized.
Another technological development in sports is the development of Hawkeye. Hawkeye is a computerized system for showing the trajectory of a cricket ball. The International Tennis Federation first allowed its usage in 2005 and was first used in Wimbledon in 2007. In 2016, UEFA used the technology at the EURO 2016 tournament (UEFA, 2016). The technology tracks information such as the speed of the cricket ball, its pitch on the wicket, and the trajectory it produces after bouncing and produces a 3D representation of it. It was originally meant to be used in hockey but is currently used in tennis to show whether the tennis is in or out of the courtyard. It is an equivalent of the goal-line technology in football today. The Hawkeye has been praised mostly by the spectators because it enables them to have accurate knowledge of the game and referees as it enables them to make proper judgements on the games they are controlling.
Another key technological innovation in sports is the development of electronic timing which is controlled by computers. It is employed to measure the duration of a particular performance which is high speed and human judgement cannot be applied, for example, super car races. It also measures the reaction at the start of the race, that is, if the racer started before the required start time (Loland, 2002). This is a major technological achievement because margins for error in high-speed races are now very minimal. This innovation goes hand in hand with the innovation of video cameras in 1980 which also is used in recording the event and judging it visually.
There is also the use of technology in training. Almost all sports use technology for training but this is left out of those who can afford it. For example, with sports being global and countries having different weather conditions, teams use technology to train under different weather conditions without leaving their country.
However, there is an ethical issue surrounding the use of technology in sports. Even with the fast-growing incorporation of technology into sports for training, there are countries that are being left out. Developing countries are not able to afford the technology and so during competitions they are left a certain level of disadvantage (Dyer, 2015). For example, when it comes to use of technology during training, the developing countries lack the technology and so are left out to train without adequate facilities making it hard for them to compete efficiently with the developed countries.
Technology has also taken sports to a whole new level. Sports have become a global activity due to technology. Unlike in the past when you had to physically attend a sports activity, currently, you can watch a sports activity from anywhere in the world through an electronic device (Goldman, 2015). Technology has made the world of sports a global village. For example, England has one of the best football leagues in the world. The fans though are not only from England but from all over the world. It is through technology that fans from all over the world are able to follow up their favourite football club in England.
Technology has simply made sports one of the biggest sources of entertainment and income earning in the world. Most people will have at least one type of sport as a form of entertainment during their leisure time. Most Sports people also have their respective sporting activity as their main source of income. Sports have also created other different types of sources of income through technology. The sources of income include television broadcasting of sports, sports news reporting, and sports product production among many others. Technology has completely changed the face of sports. With all the involvement of technology in sports, there are some pros and cons. On the advantage side, technology has reduced corruption in the sports sector. For example, using the video replay system to referee games has made it hard for referees to be bribed favour a certain team during a competition. The video replay takes into account every decision the referee makes.
Baker, D., 2015. The second place problem: assistive technology in sports and (re) constructing normal. Sci Eng Ethics, 1-18.
Bird, M., 2013. Perceptions on the Ethical Use of Technology for Sport Psychology Service Delivery among AASP Certified Consultants. Electronic Theses & Dissertations. 804. [Online].
Dyer, B., 2015. The Controversy of sports technology: a systematic review. Springerplus, 4, 524.
Goldman, S., 2015. The 5 Most Important Ways Technology Forever Changed Sports in 2014 [Online]
SportTechie, January 2015 Issue. Loland, S., 2002. Technology in sport: three ideal-typical views and their implications. Eur J Sport Sci., 2,1-11.
UEFA, 2016. UEFA EURO 2016. to use Hawk-Eye for goal-line technology. [Online].
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