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

Technology makes sports exciting in many ways. But, does tech give sports an unfair advantage?

In football, they introduced Video assistant referee (VAR) in March 2018. VAR helps the officials make accurate decisions. The percentage of accuracy has increased from 82% to 96% from 2018 to 2026. VAR is mainly used for penalties, red or yellow cards, booking the right player, checking whether a goal is counted and for the offside rule. In the 1986 World Cup an Argentinian icon called Maradona used his left hand to score but since there was no VAR the goal was counted and is now called The Hand of God, one of the most controversial and debatable goals of all time.

During the 2025 Olympics, the Norwegian Skiing team was caught in a scandal. They changed the suit to give them an advantage when they knew they were cheating. Magnus Brevig, Adrian Livelten and Thomas Lobben received an 18-month ban. The technicians apologised by saying, “What we did with the suits should never have happened and is an action I will regret for the rest of my life.” The players and the coach admitted to modifying the suits by sewing the crotch area which he confessed as “cheating”.

In tennis, they introduced hawk-eye which was released in 2025 to inspect whether the ball was inside the baseline or if the point was given to the opposition. It was designed to improve accuracy and reduce human error. It uses more than ten cameras around the court to track footage. It was first introduced in 2006 in a professional tournament, the 2006 Hopman Cup. Hawk-eye allows players to challenge calls that may need double-checking.

Some tennis players argue that hawk-eye has added more drama and suspense between points.

I use a fitness tracker which tracks my physical fitness and monitors my heart rate, quality of sleep and my daily steps. I use it when going on jogs or when playing football to track my average step count and to see if my heart rate is normal. It is a very useful piece of equipment which helps keep track of my health and fitness.

I think sports clubs and athletes should use technology but if it is in an unfair way like a richer team buying more tech than the poorer team it would make the game unfair so there needs to be rules around it.