Now for the Important Sport
copyright Hamish Hopper/Team Emirates New Zealand
The Louis Vuitton 37th America's Cup takes place between 22nd August and 27th October 2024 in Barcelona. For those of you unfamiliar with this event, it is the oldest continuous competition in international sport and in my humble opinion (as a very biased Kiwi) it needs to be renamed the Kiwi Cup!
This sporting event is amazing, technology, nature and skills developed over millennia come together to see yachts lift themselves from the water as prehistoric aquatic monsters may have many moons ago. The craft are a marvel of modern carbon fibre manufacturing combined with aerodynamic and hydrodynamic engineering befitting supersonic flight or Formula 1 cars. They are powered by the wind and human muscle.
That human muscle is used to provide power to the hydraulics that move all the sail and foil systems on each yacht. In most boats they use grinders, large men who have a ridiculous capacity for spinning devices that power the aforementioned systems. In one yacht however, they use cyclors, men who sit on bikes without wheels and create power from their legs for the same systems.
In both cases monitoring the level of power output and fatigue over time is critical. The nature of the harsh environment with the varying environmental inputs makes it a difficult place for electronic measurement.
Footfalls & Heartbeats have a textile based respiration system that (we hope) might find its way onto such athletes in the next iteration in 2028. Respiration as a marker of effort and fatigue is an underused vital sign. Not only can it be used in real time, but it can also monitor sleep and recovery for the next race.
The technology can be placed within the base layer garments they wear. Not additional electronics, no digital distractions just sporting apparel that measures your peak performance, actual fatigue, sleep quality and recovery status.
Not bad eh!
#AmericasCup #Respiration #Recovery #FootfallsandHeartbeats
