A Report On Technological Development Sport Essay

Technological development is becoming more and more essential in spot competition. Technological development refers to the development of techniques or appliance which can improve the quality and magnificence of the sport competitions. However, there could be some difference between different countries; it may depend on the level of the countries’ development. There are three main aspects revealing that technological development has revolutionized sport competitions. Firstly, the development of telecommunications promotes the globalization of sport competition. Secondly, the use of electronic appliance helps to reduce controversy and ensure the fairness of the results in the competition, such as auto-timing system. Moreover, the improvement sport equipments and analyzing system has become necessary for enhancing the performance of athletes.

Firstly, one of the most dramatic revolutions in sport completion is caused by the developments in new technologies of mass communication, especially the development of Internet and satellite television, which are allowing the sport competitions to be publicized around the world much more quickly. As an example, mega-events such as the Olympic Games can be regarded as a ‘media-events (D. Rowe, 2004, 166). According to Roche, the 1936 Berlin Olympics was the first Olympic Games to be radio broadcast to the world; and it was also the first major sport event to be televised, although it was only available in the city of Berlin at that time due to the limited local cable system. Nowadays, the universality of the Internet and television are most effective to the globalization of the sports competition, however, turning the sport competition into global event. Referring to the television, Horne and Manzenreiter indicate that the estimation of 3.9 billion television audiences had watched parts of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, and 40 billion which are cumulative television audiences, contributing to a increase of 27% over the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. Moreover, Horne and Manzenreiter also indicate the 2002 FIFA World Cup staged in Japan and South Korea, 41000 hours of programming were provided in 213 countries and about 28.8 television audiences of this event, even more than that in Olympic Games. From this situation, there is no doubt that the development of telecommunication provides a much larger stage for the sport competitions, and makes the sport competition become a global history.

Secondly, in the sport competitions, the quality of the athletes is the most important factor in determining their performance. Analysing the movements of athletes could be the effective method to increase the possibilities of championship in the sport competitions; for instance, analyzing the movement or posture of an ice-skate athlete could help the athlete to maximize the speed and overcome the shortcomings. However, the details of the movements cannot be easily seen because the unassisted eye functions at the speed of 1/340th of a second exposure time; fortunately, the use of film, cine and video and many other electronic analyzing devices provide the chance to analyze the movements of athletes in a much more detailed version. For instance, as Everett and Trew, who are from the Department of Physiotherapy, have found that the computerized kinetic analysis system can collect reliable three-dimensional data which uses high-resolution cameras to video athletes’ movements. These data are very useful to enhance athletes’ performance and also the recovering, as they can show whether the speed is at maximum or not, uncoordinated or smooth. In this case, it could be said that sport competitions are not only about the competition between athletes and also the level of technology between countries.

Finally, the auto-timing system is contributing substantially to the revolution of sport competitions. The hand-held stopwatch has been eliminated from the formal or major sport competitions, as it has the absolute limitation on accuracy, because the result will depend on the judges’ reaction. The article from Australian Academy of science states that the computerize timing systems nowadays can provide the accuracy to less than 0.001 of a second, which is 10 times the requirement of accuracy under the rules, compares to the first electronic quartz timing system in 1964 which can provide the accuracy of 0.01 of a second. Furthermore, when the vertical line-scanning video system was introduced in 1991, human judgment and error were totally removed in the competitions; the video image of each athlete will be shown when they cross the finished line, at the same time, the timing system will record each athlete’s result.