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Review
. 2023 Dec;53(Suppl 1):97-113.
doi: 10.1007/s40279-023-01913-1. Epub 2023 Oct 3.

Technology Innovation and Guardrails in Elite Sport: The Future is Now

Fergus Guppy #  1 , Borja Muniz-Pardos #  2 , Konstantinos Angeloudis  1 , Gerasimos V Grivas  3 , Asimina Pitsiladis  4 , Ross Bundy  4 , Irina Zelenkova  2 , Kumpei Tanisawa  5 , Hiroshi Akiyama  6 , Iphigenia Keramitsoglou  7 , Mike Miller  4   8 , Melanie Knopp  9 , Fabian Schweizer  9 , Tobias Luckfiel  9 , Daniel Ruiz  9 , Sebastien Racinais  10 , Yannis Pitsiladis  11   12
Affiliations
Review

Technology Innovation and Guardrails in Elite Sport: The Future is Now

Fergus Guppy et al. Sports Med. 2023 Dec.

Abstract

A growing number of companies are developing or using wearable sensor technologies that can monitor, analyse and transmit data from humans in real time that can be used by the sporting, biomedical and media industries. To explore this phenomenon, we describe and review two high-profile sporting events where innovations in wearable technologies were trialled: the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games (Tokyo 2020, Japan) and the 2022 adidas Road to Records (Germany). These two major sporting events were the first time academic and industry partners came together to implement real-time wearable solutions during major competition, to protect the health of athletes competing in hot and humid environments, as well as to better understand how these metrics can be used moving forwards. Despite the undoubted benefits of such wearables, there are well-founded concerns regarding their use including: (1) limited evidence quantifying the potential beneficial effects of analysing specific parameters, (2) the quality of hardware and provided data, (3) information overload, (4) data security and (5) exaggerated marketing claims. Employment and sporting rules and regulations also need to evolve to facilitate the use of wearable devices. There is also the potential to obtain real-time data that will oblige medical personnel to make crucial decisions around whether their athletes should continue competing or withdraw for health reasons. To protect athletes, the urgent need is to overcome these ethical/data protection concerns and develop wearable technologies that are backed by quality science. The fields of sport and exercise science and medicine provide an excellent platform to understand the impact of wearable sensors on performance, wellness, health, and disease.

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Conflict of interest statement

YP and MM are founders of Human Telemetrics (London, UK). AP is an employee of Human Telemetrics (London, UK). YP is the founder of the original Sub2 marathon project now affiliated to Human Telemetrics (London, UK). MK, FS, TL, and DR are employees of adidas Innovation, adidas AG (Herzogenaurach, Germany). The other authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest relevant to the content of this manuscript.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The technology available to each athlete (a), and the instructions provided to athletes prior to the event (b)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Core body temperature data of an athlete the day prior to the Olympic 10,000 m men’s final in Tokyo 2020
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Screenshot of the athlete’s metrics in the men’s marathon Olympic final at Tokyo 2020
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Cadence (strides/second) of left foot (a) and right foot (b) during the 5 km event at the 2022 adidas Road to Records event. F: female participants; M: male participants
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Flight time (ms) of left foot (a) and right foot (b) during the 5 km event at the 2022 adidas Road to Records event. F: female participants; M: male participants
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Stride Length (m) of left foot (a) and right foot (b) during the 5 km event at the 2022 adidas Road to Records event. F: female participants; M: male participants
Fig. 7
Fig. 7
Heart rate (bpm) response to 5 km event during the 2022 adidas Road to Records event. F: female participants; M: male participants
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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