Humans might not be comfortable working in a world where a tenth of a second can mean everything, but computers are used to it. That's why national training centers are spending more and more on sports science.
At this year's summer games, technology will get center stage in several events -- particularly swimming, where controversial new suits will get non-stop attention, particularly if they live up to expectations and produce medals and world records.
Most of high tech's contributions to the games have already taken place -- in biomechanical laboratories around the world. Athletes are monitored for every vital sign as they train, and machines offer up the most subtle of suggestions for things like kayak oar entry angles. And those subtle suggestions could end up being the difference between a Wheaties box photo and obscurity for some athletes at these Olympic Games.
Full-body swimsuits and their "Fatskin" will be the gadget of this Olympics, even though the suits were almost barred from the U.S. Olympic Trials. Officials at the trials were concerned not every swimmer would have access to the high-tech suits, but when manufacturers pledged to offer the suits for free, they were allowed.
Scientists studying sharkskin discovered that human skin is hardly optimal for slicing through water; firms like Speedo, Tyr and Adidas have since manufactured full-body suits to cover up rough human skin with shark-skin-like fabric that whisks away water much more efficiently.
"It's proven that fabric is faster than the human skin," said Matt Zimmer, promotions director at Tyr. "The human skin has so many nooks and crannies. ... When you look closely at it, there's so much more than you thought was going on." He claims the full-body suit produces a 6 percent reduction in drag.
Still, Zimmer said not everyone will wear the full-body swimsuit -- distance racers are likely to wear traditional suits, and most breast strokers are staying away from them because they're worried about restricted range of motion.
Critics of the suit raise an issue that has dogged sports science since its inception: When is technology going too far, changing the competition from person vs. person to machine vs. machine? Some have even compared the suit to the use of performance-enhancing drugs by athletes.
"A lot of naysayers say this has crossed the line, like it's putting on a steroid," Zimmer said. "But in the 1970s athletes broke records in droves when we switched to Lycra (swimsuits), and people said that then, too."
The tech talk won't all center on newfangled swimsuits. Some sprinters in track and field are coming equipped with fresh gear, too -- expect to hear a lot about an advanced running shoe with a "performance plate."
"When you think about helping performance, you always think about putting energy into the system and not getting it back," said Professor Benno M. Nigg of the University of Calgary's Human Performance Laboratory. "In running, that's difficult. You can't put springs under feet -- that's not allowed. There must be another concept if you want to improve anything."
Rigg's new concept was the plate, which might at first seem counter-productive -- it stiffens spiked racing shoes so they can't bend between the foot and the toe. But Rigg says the stiff spikes can improve performance up to 1.7 percent, or nearly two-tenths of a second in a 100-meter dash.
"If enough people in the final use these it could be a very fast final," Nigg said.
The plates don't add speed as much as they save energy. In most cases, runners are trading effort for results; flexing the knee allows it to uncoil later, extending the leg and gaining ground. But Rigg's tests showed that effort used to flex the toe-foot joint while running didn't add anything to a runner's speed, making it wasted energy.
Adidas is currently marketing the "performance plate" shoe, Rigg said. But Nike won't cede the spotlight to its rival. The Beaverton, Ore., company is expected to debut its highly secretive "Nike Shox" system. Reports indicate the shoe has been researched for 16 years, and it should be the company's biggest initiative since the "Nike Air" concept of the 1980s. The shoes are to include a kind of resilient foam that not only absorbs impact, but actually pushes the runner's foot back up. For the most part, computers -- like coaches -- have already done their work for these games, and now they must sit back and let the atheletes take over.
Tom Westenburg, principal engineer at the Sports Science and Technology Division of the U.S. Olympic Committee, says technology is used in nearly every sport to give athletes and their coaches instant feedback while training.
"Most of the stuff we do is not legal during competition, it's just training aids," he said.
At the last Olympics, the most famous training aid was the "Swim-tow," which dragged athletes through the water faster than they would normally be able to swim. It gave them a chance to learn the motor process of going faster.
"Every person who trained on that system had a personal best," Westenburg said.
The USOC is tight-lipped about most of its highly experimental methods being used for the Sydney games, but Westenburg shared some of them with MSNBC.com.
This time around, swimmers are using underwater cameras in conjunction with towing to let atheletes test slightly different body positions in an attempt to minimize drag and improve speed.
"What's critical is that we give them feedback right away," Westenburg said. "Ten years ago we'd show up two weeks later with a stack of charts and graphs, and that helped a little bit. But if it's still fresh in mind, we can dial them in on the spot."
One of Westenberg's favorite gadgets is the "instrumented heavy bag" used by boxers. It's a punching bag with sensors inside that helps boxers hone their punches for maximum impact -- and pain.
"On a punch when you're coming in low, sometimes (boxers) rotate their wrist and that gave more power. But with some athletes it doesn't."
There are other surprising lessons from the wired punching bag: When it comes to delivering a knockout blow, for example, time can be just as important as strength.
"We have a real-time display that shows a force curve for the last punch. What the peak force was what the impulse was, and then the contact time," said Westenburg. "Most people just look at peak, but when you think about it, you can get a real quick jab and it won't have all that much power, but one with solid contact for a long time could have a lower peak but move you a lot more."
Of course, the United States is hardly the only country that invests time and money in sports science and technology. The host country's Australian Institute of Sport was dubbed the "medal factory" after the country was the most successful in the medals-tally-per-head at the last Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996. It was set up in 1981 when Australian sport was in the doldrums.
AIS kayakers look through training goggles that show their vital statistics, including heart rate data and work rates. Rowers use oars with sensors that measure the force each competitor is exerting on the water, enabling coaches to spot the weak link in a boat or identify where an individual's timing is out.
"My job is to make sure all sports use sports science and the world's best technology," Dr. Peter Davis of the AIS said. He promised other advances would be unveiled at the Olympics in a bid to give Australian athletes an edge.
But the technology most home viewers will notice during these Olympics games will be entirely invisible to the athletes. Hovering just in front of runners in a track and field event will be a digital circle showing exactly what the world-record pace is. At home, swimmers will appear to be chasing after a green line -- a "virtual swimmer" -- that moves just in front of or just behind them. Javelin throwers will hurl at stationary lines that represent the current leader and the world record.
The technology was developed by the same people who gave us the imaginary first-down line in football. Mark Jeffers, senior vice president of sports sales and development for Orad Hi-Tec Systems Ltd., says the additional information will make competition more exciting for home viewers.
"In kayaking, there will be a virtual finish line," he said. "We can also put the flags of the nationalities in the picture, so you can tell who's who. It can be hard to tell right now."
The moving green line technology is considerably more complicated than the first-down line that has become standard to many football broadcasts because it must be tied into an official scorer's clock. But Jeffers said it was tested live at a track and field meet in Oslo, Norway, this summer and performed flawlessly.
"It looks silly if it's wrong," he added.
Viewers in the United States watching NBC Sports coverage will see Orad's technology in many events, and dozens of other national networks outside the United States are also deploying the technology, Jeffers said.
Reuters contributed to this story.
