Record-Breakers

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The Paris 2024 Olympics begin in just one month, where elite athletes from around the globe will eagerly compete for gold over 19 days of events.

Before we get there, I want to take a step back in time almost 100 years, to one of the most prolific Olympic games of all time - Berlin 1936.

In 1936, the United States was at one of its lowest points in history.

Seven years earlier, the Stock Market Crash of 1929 had issued notice of what would be a decade of absolute turmoil, known today as the Great Depression.

Millions of Americans lost their jobs, were forced to leave their homes, and saw their life savings virtually wiped out overnight.

The economy was down bad but morale was down horrendously.

Across the pond, the economic machine of Nazi Germany was preparing for what would be the famous Berlin 1936 Summer Olympics.

For the United States, this was an opportunity to rise from the ashes and bring hope to a country living through its most difficult period since its inception.

Little did anyone know, eight boys in a boat from Seattle would rise to the call.

The Husky Clipper

When eight ragtag college students from the University of Washington headed to Princeton to compete against the greatest, most well-funded rowing teams in the U.S. at the Olympic trials, no one thought they stood a chance.

The hodgepodge group were sons of shipyard workers, loggers, and working-class parents. Most competitors were more concerned with the nominal pay and lodging they would receive when they tried out, rather than actually competing to win.

Not only was the group inexperienced and young, but they were joining a program with barely enough money to send them to their events, having to raise funds from local businesses and the community to support their journey.

Yet, when the horn was blown and the race was finished, the Huskies came out on top.

Despite winning at the Olympic trials, the team almost didn’t have the chance to compete on the grand Olympic stage, due (once again) to funding.

To expense the trip to Germany, the Huskies needed to raise the equivalent of $110,000 in only 3 days. 

Somehow, in a miraculous crunchtime effort, the team raised the cash to compete and suddenly they were off to Berlin.

At the games, they would be competing against the best rowing teams around the globe, including Hitler’s stellar German squad.

In true underdog fashion, the boys once again prevailed…winning the race by a mere half-second. 

Not only did they win the gold medal, but they set a new world record in the eight-man crew race, shocking the entire world in the process.

These athletes demonstrated the power of grit, determination, and pure athletic ability in sports, coming out on top against the best crews on the planet.

However, stick this crew against the best teams today and they wouldn’t stand a shot.

Jocks Meet Geeks

The winning team of underdogs in Berlin’s 1936 Olympics finished the 2000-meter race in 6:25.40.

The champs in 2020?

5:24.64, set by New Zealand’s 8 man-crew, with Germany and Great Britain only a second behind.

Are these crews today so much bigger, stronger, or in better shape than their co-champions of late that they could command a time a whole minute faster?

Unlikely.

How is this possible, then?

Put plainly, racing technology in the past 100 years has improved exponentially.

The wooden shells used in the 1936 Olympic boats have since been replaced by lightweight, carbon-fiber frames that encompass no wood at all, limiting drag and making them much more efficient in the water.

The boats are outfitted with speakers and sensors to direct and analyze each rower individually as the race progresses.

Design engineers use computational fluid dynamics and perfectly scaled digital models to pinpoint build inefficiencies and minimize drag.

The rowers of today are at a massive advantage: not because they are better athletes, but due to technological innovations that allow them to set new records again, and again, and again.

This is not only the case in Olympic rowing.

From track & field to basketball, sizable advancements in sports tech have allowed elite competitors to do the impossible seemingly each and every year.

Technology has given us the power to transcend the boundaries of what human achievement looks like.

We have been able to accomplish enormous feats in athletics and allow competitors to compete stronger and for longer at the hands of innovation.

That being said, I am inclined to believe that the greatest improvements are yet to come.

There are a few specific startups I want to highlight that best demonstrate why the future of athletics has never looked brighter.

Nike x Hyperice

Icy Hot beware: There is a new kid on the block who is about to steal your and your dad’s lunch money.

Just this week, Nike and recovery expert, Hyperice, unmasked the next generation of wearable tech.

Launching by the end of 2024, are an adjustable performance boot and vest that provide heating and cooling to aid athletes throughout the training season.

As the linked article above demonstrates, the boot is a high-top sneaker with heat and dynamic air compression systems that are easily controllable using a single button on each shoe.

Targeting the foot and ankle, these new sneaks “drive heat deep into the muscle and tissue”, allowing athletes to both warm up and naturally recover at a much faster pace.

Similarly, the vest allows for adjustable heating and notably incorporates thermoelectric coolers that give performers the option to dial their body temperatures exactly as they please.

Per Nike’s press release, the vest has thermal modules with sensors able to monitor athlete body temperature and autonomously maintain the user’s preferred equilibrium state.

The wearable tech already has tons of praise from basketball superstar (and arguably G.O.A.T.) Lebron James, to Belgian heptathlete and gold-medal holder, Nafi Thiam.

As the Paris Olympics begin in July of this year, you can expect to see these new products showcased on the global stage by the dozens of Nike athletes competing.

With nearly 50% of sports injuries being preventable, and a majority of which due to improper warm-ups and recovery, this new tech offers, what could be a game-changing solution.

If athletes can avoid injury and enter each race, match, or competition in peak performance, there is no doubt we will continue to see new history-makers unveiled.

Hudl Up

When was the last time you checked out your sophomore-year highlights on Hudl?

Unless you’re pigskin-slinging Uncle Rico, the answer is probably never.

In the off-chance you have, you’re probably a bit surprised to see Hudl isn’t just the athletic graveyard of high-school hopefuls, it has become one of the world’s leading performance-analytics companies.

In the last few years, Hudl has been on a mission to become the all-in-one sports platform for coaching and player analytics.

Per a recent article from the NYT, the “Nebraska-based company acquired video platforms Wyscout and Instat in 2019 and 2022,” which have dominated the video-analysis market for the last ten years.

In June, Hudl announced that it would be pursuing the acquisition of prominent sports analytics company, StatsBomb.

Over its nearly two-decade lifespan, the company has gobbled up more than 11 other businesses to fuel its video-analysis empire.

At the moment, Hudl is dedicated to providing coaches and athletes with custom-built video and smart-camera packages that provide automatic video capture, livestreaming, and sharing.

Once the in-game film has been captured, the sports behemoth can provide numerous performance and video analysis tools to the consumer from its portfolio of acquired startups. 

Already, the company reaches millions of athletes in the U.S. and plans to reach millions more in the future.

While popularized in 2011 with chubby Jonah Hill in Moneyball, sports analytics as an industry has really taken off in the past decade.

Hudl and its competitors are only beginning to transform how we scout, play, and perform at the highest levels.

Avoiding Concussions One Mouth At A Time

Billy Guyton was a successful, fully professional rugby player from New Zealand who competed for several teams in dozens of games in the 2010s.

However, in 2018, at 28 years old, Guyton was forced to retire given recurring symptoms stemming from multiple in-game concussions.

Tragically at just 33, Guyton passed away after several traumatic years debilitated by what would afterwards be identified as chronic traumatic encephalopathy, aka CTE.

CTE is a neurodegenerative brain disorder that is onset by repeated head trauma. Symptoms associated with CTE can include memory loss, impulse control problems, aggression, suicidality, parkinsonism, and eventually progressive dementia.

Guyton was the first New Zealand rugby player confirmed to have died with CTE, but not the first athlete.

In the U.S., football is a massive sport and many young athletes dream of one day making it to the NFL. However, even millions of potential earnings and fame have a cost.

A recent study from BU found CTE present in 345 of 376 former NFL players studied.

While many companies have tried to make protective headgear like helmets safer, a determined few are instead focused on preventing CTE before it arises.

Custom mouthguard manufacturer OPRO and startup Prevent Biometrics partnered up last August to create the world’s most advanced smart mouthguards.

The products are very similar to the one you used in middle school lacrosse except for the fact that they feature a small chip with a mouthful of tech inside.

With tiny accelerometers, gyroscopes, and proximity sensors, the mouthguards can assess the impact of a collision in real-time.

If a certain pre-identified threshold is broken, the mouthguard instantaneously sends this information to medical staff on the sideline, who can assess the player for head injuries.

Often, players stay in the game or match well after sustaining what could be a concussive hit, only amplifying the potential for serious brain damage.

World Rugby has already adopted these smart devices, mandating its 7,500 global players to wear these custom guards in practice and games.

The potential good this product could do to prevent concussions and limit CTE across sports is staggering.

Could these mouthguards help cure CTE before it ever has the chance to surface?

Sports bring out the best in humans.

They amplify our innate desire to compete, valiantly pursue audacious goals, and triumph over all.

Our human condition is innovation.

When harnessed correctly, we can accomplish the impossible again, and again, and again.

-John Henry

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