“In not too long, athletics is going to look more like Formula 1 than you could imagine,” says Raúl Chapado, excited about the arrival of technology to his sport, for the benefit of the athlete's health, performance. which are monitored by the coaches and also by the spectator, who perhaps soon, in addition to watching a seemingly simple race on television, will be able to have mountains of live information about speed, fatigue, acceleration, heart rate or any other physical variant. of competitors.
The admirable sporting gesture of Ricardo Rosado in the Malaga marathon: “He was having a very bad time, he was staggering”
On Tuesday, in the Athletics Module of the Higher Sports Council, the Spanish Athletics Federation, with the presence of president Víctor Francos, celebrated its Athletics Innovation Day. This time he surrounded himself with engineers, scientists, Big Data experts and technicians to present his most ambitious project, the IMU's, an innovation laboratory applied to sports sponsored by Telefónica Tech and with the financial support of European funds.. “Be pioneers,” challenged President Chapado.
The key is to make decisions based on data and if it can be in real time, even better. And for this, Artificial Intelligence. Juan Carlos Álvarez, director of the National Center for Athletic Training, deploys his 11-gram wearable sensors (IMUs, inertial measurement units). “They weigh less than the race numbers and it's appreciated,” jokes Diego García Carrera, the Olympic walker who acts as a model this time.. On a treadmill, with a previously calibrated sensor in each of his shoes, he increases his pace until he reaches 15 kilometers per hour, while algorithms that generate KPI's (key performance indicator) and variables that, once 'translated', they are gold for the athlete and their coach, with live details (they receive it on their smart watches or sunglasses) about their performance, step size, supports, turns and even 'flights' '. Also, in the long term, it generates biofeedback that is stored with which the athlete can compare his parameters over time and even with those of other rivals or teammates.
The head of the Athletics Tech & Innovation LAB explains why this project started with athletic walking, “a not very explosive specialty, with repetitive movements, that could receive information in real time”. Although they are already working on the 110/100 meter hurdles tests, and on the discus throw, “where we believe it has potential”. Precisely because of those controversial 'flights' that, among other things, have put the traditional march into question. «In walking we can be disqualified for not extending the advancing leg (when in contact with the ground it must be extended 180°) or for losing contact with both feet on the ground with the naked eye.. That is where this system can help us,” admits José Antonio Quintana, the national guru of the specialty.
García Carrera, at the CSD facilities in Madrid.
Because there is an instant, approximately 45 thousandths of a second (at a competition pace), in which neither of the walker's feet has contact with the ground, impossible to detect by the human eye, but not by technology.. “To this day it remains the only athletics specialty that incorporates the subjective value of a judge's opinion on technique, when it has been proven that it is very difficult, even with good judges, to determine if a decision is correct,” he explains. to EL MUNDO García Carrera.
The man from Madrid not only praises this arrival of the VAR to his sport to resolve doubts, he also predicts radical changes if the International Federation agrees in the not too distant future (the next Olympic cycle) to adapt its regulations: «We walkers are going to be judged much more strictly, so we are going to have to tighten our belts, even consider having to compete a little more slowly to make the technique 100% perfect. But we are in favor.”
«It will allow us athletes to rest assured that we are competing in a fair sport.. You are not going to have the frustration of being beaten by someone you have doubts about.. And at a general level, to have the acceptance of everyone and eliminate the number one criticism that our specialty has: that the criteria of the judges cannot be determined 100%. “Everything is going to be beneficial,” he congratulates himself before returning the sensors of his shoes and hearing the wink of his coach Quintana: “Don't worry, this is not going to prevent you from training, training and training again.”