The Technologies of the Olympics, Continued
Wow. The US is having one helluva track meet over there in Paris. I'll have more to say in Monday's newsletter – Cole Hocker!!! – as I really am trying to restrict Friday's email to news about health and fitness technology, not just news about my current sports obsession. There are, of course, plenty of technology-related stories from the Olympics, in expected and unexpected ways:
"Public Health Experts Want Coca-Cola and the Olympics to Break Up," says Wired. I mean, a lot of the sponsorship stuff is weird – the whole Google Gemini stuff, for starters. That Willem Dafoe ad.
But speaking of things you probably shouldn't drink if you're health-conscious: the Seine. Lots of headlines about triathletes contracting E coli following their race, but in fact, no cases have been directly tied to the Seine. I mean... Wired (again – lots of sports coverage in the publication, which is interesting) insists that "No, the Seine Cleanup Wasn't a Failure."
Frankly, this is more the stuff you expect from the famed tech publication: "A Self-Healing Pole Vault Pole Is One Great Leap for Sports Tech." Or its assessment of the green technology behind the purple track at the Stade de France.
Wired (again) on the French surveillance state: "At the Olympics, AI Is Watching You." Wired is, of course, quite gleeful about AI watching and judging the athletes – so is The Verge.
What the Olympics do not seem to be monitoring is COVID? How the actual fuck did Noah Lyles race in the 200 meter final on Thursday after testing positive for COVID on Tuesday?! A massive health technology / ethical fail there, for sure.
"Don’t be surprised if extreme heat makes breaking Olympic records impossible," Sequencer wrote before the Games started. Records have been broken – Cole Hocker!!! – but I think there's a lot more to be said (and done, obviously) about how climate change is effecting sports for everyone.
Speaking of change, the Olympics changed the rules for some of the track events, adding a "repechage" race that gives a second chance to those who did not move forward in the preliminary round. It's a change explicitly designed to create more content – an example of how streaming technology has altered the way in which sports are played not just watched.
Nike's Coach Bennett asked on Threads, why are Track & Field athletes forced to wear bibs? A good question! Last year, The New York Times wrote about why runners still race with paper pinned to their shirts. Sure, there's a little piece of technology tucked in there – a tracking tag. But mostly, it's "tradition."
CNN is not concerned about the size of the paper bibs but quite worried about the length of women's running shorts. Is it fashion, is it fitness technology? IDK. See also: gold medalist in the 400m Quincy Hall's gold grills. NBC put a heart rate monitor on the father of hurdler Grant Holloway.
The science behind... The Athletic on the science and technology of sprinting: "How Noah Lyles became Olympic 100m champion: A 300-page textbook, biomechanics and a stickman." The New York Times has some nice Olympics-related visualizations: on the technology of surfing and the science of the waves in Tahiti, on the mechanics of swimming, weightlifting, the trampoline, high jumping, weightlifting, and skateboarding.
Sidenote: the vibes are feeling pretty good, amirite? I mean, there's a lot of stuff going on – and some of it is dark AF – but I wonder: what role is the Olympics playing in making Americans* feel hopeful about the country? Maybe more thoughts on Monday. (* some Americans.)
Elsewhere in vibes: Folks are digging up VP candidate Tim Walz's running stats – he's no slouch! They're certainly discovering something quite different from those digging through old blog posts of JD Vance. Non-toxic masculinity. It's a thing!
Elsewhere in the business of health technology: "Zoe, an At-Home Nutrition Testing Startup, Lands $15M." (It actually doesn't test your nutrition; it tests stool and blood samples. So that sounds like a fun data-gathering process.) "Fertility tracking app Flo Health raises $200M at a $1B+ valuation," TechCrunch reports. Bloomberg on "What Happens When Ozempic Takes Over Your Town" – the town in question is not LA or NYC, but Bowling Green, Kentucky. "Gen Z loves the gym. That's a big problem for gyms," says Business Insider, noting that most gyms bank on membership fees from members who never actually show up. Another publication weights in on "fitness gum." Speaking of dumb things to do with your mouth, I usually keep the food stuff to "The Extra Mile" newsletter on Mondays, but I think it’s worth repeating to a larger audience that Slate pitches are mostly bad: "I Tried Medium-Rare Chicken. You Should, Too." No.
Try the Olympic Chocolate Muffins instead. Tell me what you think...
Thanks for reading Second Breakfast. Paid subscribers will receive a newsletter on Monday with more thoughts on the Olympics (beyond these technological concerns), on my own training, and, of course, on the latest AI boom/bust. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber – doing so helps support my research into the history of the future of technology.
