Can technology make sports more equal, or does it only widen the gap between competitors?

“The world of sports is drastically changing alongside the rapid evolution of technology.”

- Chad Q. Brown.

In this stand point I will be discussing the question “Can technology make sports more equal, or does it only widen the gap between competitors?” within the topic of “The Winter Games: talent or technology?”.

It is my opinion that technology has proven to be disadvantageous within sport.

My reason for this is, firstly, technology used to check over and replay footage to determine quality of performance is often believed by spectators to be unnecessarily analytical and to ruin the atmosphere when observing sport. A key example of this is VAR in football. VAR is often labelled disruptive due to the fact that the referee has to pause the match in order to review footage on screen therefore removing the element of spontaneity from the game. Often fans have to wait several minutes before a decision is made. Furthermore VAR is believed by some to “dehumanise the game” as it removes the element of human error when deciding if a goal is to be accepted or not. Additionally VAR is likely to calculate the specifics of a goal allowing factual determination of whether it is to be counted or not.

Secondly technology can be used as a form of cheating within sport. An example of this includes “tech doping” in which technology is used to gain an unfair advantage within competitive activities. Nike’s Alphaly shoes can be considered an example of performance enhancing technology as they have the ability to enhance running ability by 4% and speed by 3.4%.

An example of a varying opinion includes a comment made by the username “comfortable robin” the key points of which are summarised below:

• There is a huge factor of talent within competitive sports.
• There are certain aspects of sport that only talented athletes can complete. An example of this includes the ability to come down from a height within skiing being required.
• Technology does not amount to the amount of skill required in physical activity.

However I think that my argument is stronger as in spite of the raw talent required to compete at a high level within competitive sports technology is often a great assistance within training. An example of this can be found in treadmills and resistance devices being used in competitive running.