How Has Technology
Changed Sports and Fitness?

According to Research and Markets, the global value of the sports market was supposed to reach an annual potential of around half-trillion US dollars this year. The pandemic and unrest in society all across the world have certainly corrected these predictions. In fact, sports and related areas have been dramatically affected by the events of 2020. Canceled Olympics is just one of many examples.

Against this backdrop, certain technologies in sport, fitness and wellness are becoming increasingly interesting, some of them having a true transformative nature that could help this sector get over and revive after the crisis. We are talking about telefitness for home workouts, personal wearables, performance tracking systems, to name a few.

In this article, we will review the current state of sports and technology, recent advancements in this area as well as amazing digital products that thrive in this industry, no matter what.

No doubt, the major trends in fast-growing tech such as IoT and AI, in general, have made a big impact on the industry of sport and fitness. Along with now common fitness trackers and mobile apps for different sports activities, we see new technology in sports being tested and adopted with high enthusiasm. For example:

The time when wearables in sports and wellness have been associated only with Fitbit bands and basic pedometers has passed. Today, the variety of wearable products so as the versatility of their functionality are astonishing.

There are smart glasses for cyclists that build and show routes in real-time and goggles for swimmers that collect important metrics on the go. Sensor-enabled shoes for football players and runners that track speed, force, motion, traction, etc. There are even full-body suits that enable performance monitoring during training and enhance the experience with different AR and VR effects. These wearables are suitable for professional athletes, hobbyists, as well as those who undergo rehabilitation after traumas.

The new reality of home office and mass quarantine has certainly boosted the concept of telefitness and associated technology and fitness combos that make home workouts and remote coaching possible. This category also includes a wide range of solutions from popular video conferencing tools and mobile apps for instructors and students to futuristic fitness technologies like smart mirrors.

The best thing about these technologies is that they have a great chance to stay relevant even after the lockdown and mass quarantine are over. Telefitness services are particularly important for such groups of consumers as the elderly, people who recover from injuries and those who can’t access gyms or workout outside for other reasons. There are already plenty of health and wellness applications in this area.

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Other booming innovations that will impact sports from many different perspectives are the emerging 5G technologies and Internet of Things. Now, wearables are just a tiny part of this technology, whereas the huge opportunities Internet of Things and ultrafast connectivity bring to this sector are truly fantastic. In this category, we are talking about connected stadiums, immersive audience experience, the new level of performance tracking, analytics and immediate feedback.

When talking about the most recent sport technology advancements, it would be unfair to miss the whole new market in this industry that emerged thanks to digital technologies. eSports, which includes eRacing, fighting games, shooters, etc. is a fast-growing sector built around mobile and PC gaming, AR and VR as well as AI technologies and even autonomous vehicles.

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Equipment is often the main focus of sports startups. The growth of technology in sports equipment is seen not only in the transformation of traditional items like treadmills but also in previously unseen products like performance tracking systems. Here are some examples:

• Smart workout equipment. When the common workout equipment such as treadmills or dumbbells are enhanced with sensors, they become a source of unique performance data and help monitor and correct workout routines in real-time, enhance efficiency and even avoid injuries.
• Connected gear. Smart suits, glasses, helmets, golf clubs, etc. have already become a part of essential gear kits of professional athletes. These tools provide professional sportsmen and sportswomen as well as their coaching teams with essential insights later used in building efficient training programs and winning strategies.
• Enhanced sports areas. The impact of technology in sports is seen not only on athletes’ training and performance but also on the conditions of the sports environment. Largescale facilities including stadiums, racing tracks, skating rinks are not easy and certainly not cheap to maintain. Enhanced with sensors, electricity management systems, etc. these facilities turn into smart resilient spaces that provide athletes and audiences with excellent conditions for sports events.
• Athlete tracking systems. How has technology impacted sports? Possibly, the best way to answer this question is to compare the performance of the athletes today and, say, 20 years ago. One of the key reasons why athletes excel and show incredible leaps, literally in some cases, is the ability to track and analyze their performance data, determine opportunities, detect weak points and tune training programs accordingly. This is why athlete tracking platforms like STATSports are gaining popularity (Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and other major football clubs use this platform).

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Examples of using technologies in sports are abundant. Here are just several interesting applications of using information technology in fitness, professional sports and wellness.

There is a great diversity of mobile applications for home training, workout progress tracking as well as companion apps for wearables. Dona Rise and Dona Shine is a unique app combo that, on one side, provides fitness and yoga instructors online placement to offer their services and, on the other side, helps students find instructors and routines they are interested in. It’s a sort of Uber for fitness and wellness, which, frankly, many of us would like to have access to in the time of quarantine.

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As mentioned earlier, IoT and wearables are really hot in this area. As an example, we would offer you to check the ultimate sensor suit, the winner of uncountable CES and Red Dot awards, Teslasuit. Not only can it expand the potential of an athlete's training thanks to the haptic tech, immersive VR experience and unique telemetry analytics. It also works as a tool for post-injury rehabilitation.

Mobile apps and wearable technology in fitness and sports work side by side with data analytics to provide true value to both professionals and amateurs. In this context, AI analytics is gaining increasing interest for the ability to make sense of massive amounts of data and the potential to make fairly accurate predictions. One of the examples is F1 teams using racing data collected in years and in real-time to better adjust their strategies, improve vehicle preparation and maintenance, and even ensure better safety for their drivers.

Are you interested in the future of sports technology and want to become a part of its growth and development? Or have an existing project in this field and need a skilled and experienced team to bring it to life?

Contact Digiteum team to talk about your current needs. We have varied domain experience from charity app development to large SaaS platform design and engineering. Let's have a chat!