The Olympics are a time of year when the world tunes in to watch some of the best athletes compete on the field, but with all this focus on performance and results, can smartwatches help increase athletes' transparency in major sporting events like the Olympics?
(Image Source: Statista)
With more emphasis placed on doping scandals and suspicions, it's natural that professional sports organisations would be searching for ways to ensure integrity.
Sure enough, smartwatches have been suggested as one possible solution. In response, we look at how they could be implemented into Olympic competition and their potential drawbacks.
Can smartwatches help reduce doping in sports?
There's a lot of pressure on athletes to win, and sometimes they'll do whatever it takes to achieve the desired results. Unfortunately, in some cases, this means taking performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) that are banned from competitive play.
With PEDs present in professional sports, more than a few athletes could be cheating the system. Although smartwatches can't prevent doping entirely, they may provide additional ways to monitor and regulate athletes in the competition so that they're not getting any "unfair" advantages over other competitors.
When doping is suspected, an athlete's blood and urine are tested to see what substances exist. But, it isn't always the case that these tests will pick up on performance-enhancing drugs, so smartwatches could be a viable additional testing method. Although current drug testing methods have been adequate, they can be quite expensive and don't offer any real-time data.
On the other hand, smartwatches are relatively inexpensive and give athletes and organisations a better idea of what's happening in real time. For example, sophisticated smartwatches, like the Apple Watch, can check athletes' heart rate variability (HRV), a non-invasive measure of how well your body responds to exercise. Ideally, the watch can be synced to an app that can provide real-time data on weight distribution, breathing patterns, and more.
Would it be practical to incorporate smartwatches in the Olympics?
Making smartwatches fit into the Olympics would take a lot of work. Although some athletes, like speed skaters, have been using smartwatches for years, using them in other sports is unlikely because of the specialised training required for each sport. Some teams aren't even comfortable enough with wearable technology to let it near their athletes. However, individual sports like track and field and cycling may be willing to use them. Much of this depends on what the smartwatches are being used for, which is why testing and training on these features would have to be done beforehand.
Wearable tech is likely to catch on with professional sports teams within the next decade. Some already have access to smartwatches. Hopefully, this will motivate other teams to try out smartwatches and help them gain an edge over their competition.
(Smart wrist and hand wearables at Tokyo Olympics: Sports Wearable)
Although it's still early days for wearables in sports, studies have shown that wearables improve performance – specifically for weight loss. So far, we've only seen it used by athletes trying to lose weight, but smartwatches could give athletes extra motivation. Since some athletes in non-Olympic sports are already using them, they'll likely be more widespread in the upcoming years.
Will wearables replace current training methods?
Smartwatches aren't just being used to give athletes an edge; they're also being used to supplement existing training methods. By providing real-time data and coaching, smartwatches could potentially contribute more to athletic performance than other training methods. In time, wearable technology will have a more significant impact on professional sports and the Olympics.
As for doping, smartwatches can't eradicate that. But, they can ensure that athletes are competing fairly at all times. Until now, doping has relied on the athlete's trust: they have to know what they're getting into and then be willing to take that risk. So, in theory, smartwatches would make cheating hard because the data would only be visible to an athlete—or staff member—with the appropriate access.
(Image Source: Plastics Today)
There are several other possibilities for how smartwatches could be used in sports. For example, athletes could use them to track their training cycles, , monitor how much weight they've lost/gained, improve their strength and flexibility while they're training, and more. Since smartwatches have so many capabilities, these are only a few of the possible additional uses. In the future, athletes will likely use wearables in different capacities.