Secret weapons: The gears behind the gold

The latest technology may be helping Olympians to break records in Beijing

The tech-edge
World records are tumbling fast at this year's Olympics. In fact, 10 world records were shattered in the first three days – in just the sport of swimming alone! Are the athletes that much fitter? Or is it the gear? "Not only have we seen a tremendous number of records fall, but we can expect a whole lot more," says Dave Zinczenko, editor-in-chief of Men's Health and editorial director of Women's Health. "That's because the athletes are training and even eating better than ever before, and they understand how their bodies work better than ever. But it's also because every sport seems to have introduced record-breaking technology to give nature a boost." Here's a rundown of the gear that's giving athletes an edge.


Swim like a fish
TYR Tracer Rise and Speedo LZR Racer: Swimming has certainly been the most talked about sport at the Olympics, and much of that is due to inspired performances, as well as state-of-the-art swimsuits. The Speedo LZR Racer uses ultrasonically bonded seams to help reduce drag so swimmers glide through the water in the same graceful way dolphins do. The effect is like painting on your swimsuit. And if you feel invincible in your suit, your body just might go along for the ride. It's mind over water!

TYR's competitive suit, the Tracer Rise, was worn most notably by Matt Grevers, who just picked up both a gold and silver medal in it. This suit uses compression panels that contour certain muscle groups to control movement. Basically, it's a Batman costume for swimmers. These panels keep the muscles of the body properly positioned, so it ensures that oxygen efficiently makes its way through the body. (These suits aren't just a second skin; they improve on skin!)


Camera ready
Dartfish technology: The camera reveals every flaw. And in this case, it can reveal split-second flaws in a player's form. Dartfish uses digital video and software that breaks down movement into fractions of a second, from start to finish, so even the tiniest of flaws – invisible to the naked eye – become visible. On Dartfish, a sprinter who leaves the blocks just a millisecond too slow would look like Archie Bunker getting out of his recliner. You can even show that sprinter running against himself in other races, to see where he has succeeded or failed. (That may be the only way anyone can beat Michael Phelps, in fact. On Dartfish, swimming against himself!) What's amazing is that competitors are using the technology against each other: The French handball team used it in preparation for the Olympics to scout other teams to break down their opponents' strengths and weaknesses.


All sports
Suunto T6: Forget filaments and microchips: The greatest technology is ultimately the human body, so the harder and smarter you train, the better you can perform. The Suunto T6 may look like your standard heart rate monitor, but it also calculates your excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, or EPOC. The higher your EPOC, the harder you've just worked out, as the muscles require additional oxygen to replace that used during your practice session. You don't always want to kill yourself in training though, so knowing the exercise load, athletes can make an optimal training plan and to avoid both over- and under-training. Just to give you an idea of how much athletes value this device, those using the previous model in the 2006 Winter Games won a combined 34 medals, more than any other single country.


Drink to this
PureSport: You've heard of carbo-loading, which is when athletes eat a whole lot of pasta before and after a big race? Well, athletes are realizing that a more balanced nutritional load will help them bounce back from a race faster. PureSport is called a "nutritional delivery system." We used to have food, now we just have "nutritional delivery systems." This one was designed by John Ivy, chairman of Kinesiology and Health Education at University of Texas. It's meant to be consumed within 30 minutes of completing a workout to maximize the replenishment of energy used during exercise, as well as ensuring speedy muscle recovery. Think about how precise this is: PureSport has a carb-to-protein ratio of 2.67 to 1. Way more scientific than spaghetti and meatballs. It's particularly popular with the US Swim Team; Michael Phelps says, "It's "the best performance drink I've ever found." By the way, you can get almost the same effect by drinking chocolate milk after a workout, which has a similar carb-to-p rotein ratio and has spread from preschool to professional athletes in recent years. Studies show that chocolate milk speeds workout recovery faster than regular milk, and faster than many sports beverages. (Just watch out when they start dumping it on coaches' heads; sour milk is a tough smell to get rid of!)


No sweat
Nike's USA team basketball jerseys: When you have to dunk over a giant like Yao Ming, you need all the vertical lift you can get. For years, sneaker companies have been trying to make lighter basketball shoes, but what about the jerseys? To put even more pop in Team USA's vertical, Nike eliminated 25 centimeters of material to reduce the weight of the jersey by 31 percent. (And when players try to grab some jersey to keep Kobe from jumping out of the gym, they'll come up empty-handed.) The back is also notable: It's made of a special mesh called Aerographics that uses half the typical amount of yarn, to be even lighter and to cool the player.


Up to bat
The Mizuno Frenzy Softball bat: Softball may be in its last run at the Olympics, but this bat will help it go out with a bang. The Mizuno Frenzy – the one used by the U.S. women's team – uses the same carbon material found in the body of Boeing's new 787, triple layered on top of each other. The result is a bat with a 16 percent larger sweet spot and 38 percent less vibration, so the power goes into the ball, not the ladies' hands.

Victory kicks

The Zoom Victory middle-distance spike: Traditional sprint shoes are built for speed, but not built to last. Recall those legendary gold sneakers that Michael Johnson wore: They weighed in at 112 grams, but would collapse and split at the seams after more than 40 seconds – which was all the time Johnson needed. To design a shoe for middle-distance runners, Nike started from the ground up and weighed every component individually to create a shoe that could crack 100 grams but last in a longer race. The solution was to use something called the Flywire design, which is a support structure much like a suspension cable bridge. Additional weight was subtracted by punching a hole in the heel. The cool news for runners who will hit the pavement more than the track is that the Flywire design is being incorporated into more traditional running shoes as well. (But I don't recommend painting them gold; there was only one Michael Johnson, after all.)


Wet shoes
Adidas rowing shoes: When you think about rowers, you think about those awesome back muscles. Well, some of us do, I guess. But the legs are actually the ENGINE that propels the boat. At the beginning of each stroke, the rowers are kicking themselves back on a sliding seat, so they want the energy from their kicks to be going directly toward the front of the boat.

Adidas came up with a shoe that has outriggers on the sides, so all the force propels the boat toward the finish line. From a safety perspective, what's really cool is this familiar Adidas three-stripe design. Should the boat capsize, the rower can simply unhook these straps to release the shoes and escape quickly.

Source :http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26180010/?pg=6#TDY_OLY_DaveZGear