Each Olympic cycle brings something unique. Classes are introduced and discontinued, formats evolve and new stars arise through incredible dedication, hard work, and smarter training practices. One constant through every recent olympiad, however, is the continual push towards data-driven performance analytics.
Tokyo 2021 saw Japan’s Judo Federation use algorithmic formulas to rank their athletes, computer vision used in beach volleyball, and machine learning and AI employed by USA surfing. Every cycle becomes more professional and performance-obsessed, and data technology spearheads that movement.
Wearable technology is virtually universal across all events, smartwatches and monitoring vests give athletes and analytics teams the knowledge of where effort is best exerted, when athletes are overworking and what statistics look like during peak performance, giving them the increased ability to repeat optimal conditions.
