Perfection perfection: athletic gesture and technological innovations

Money, words, images, more and less useful news are circulating around the Olympics. We go to the dense spirit of the thing, the love of movement in its forms. The human element and the machine element meet thanks to innovations at the limit of absolute precision. The athletic gesture, like the machine that measures it, always further perfectible ...

The blocks, the pistol for the departure, the innovations between the lanes of the pool, the highly advanced photoelectric cells. We see these technology tools for the 2012 Olympics in more detail.

High technology at the service of movement

Around the 50s the starting blocks if the competitors dug them, would you believe it? That's it. Then there was the need to create conditions for starting the race that were identical for all and the starting blocks were born. Omega, the partner company of the Olympic Games since 1932, this year will use a version of the new blocks that detects the force exerted by the sprinters.

This company has for years been searching for time that is not proustianmente lost, but necessarily precise.

After 80 years of research and studies, Omega is bringing the new Quantum Timer to the London 2012 Olympics, with an enhanced resolution of one millionth of a second, 100 times higher than that of the devices used so far.

The news also overwhelm the pistol that signals the start: a rather futuristic electronic version will be introduced. In any sense, the gun is done in three: when the trigger is pressed, the gun sounds, emits a luminous flash and activates the stopwatches.

Even at the edge of the pool the news arrives: a touch pad positioned at the end of each lane will react to contact with the swimmer and not to the return of water.

Images, videos, the flame of the 2012 Olympics

Il Corriere dello Sport, between captivating gossip and videos, dedicates an entire section to the 2012 Olympics. Meanwhile, we were dazzled by the shots of La Repubblica, both those of French gymnast training, and generic photos that cover more moments and preparatory situations on Yahoo! Sport.

And every now and then we go to review the video of the lighting of the Olympic flame in Greece, a country that now more than ever needs strength, as well as our boot on the other hand. In short, the invocation of Apollo always has its effect ...

Images | Fotopedia