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Now is the Time for Open Olympics

The time has come for an open Olympics.  This means any athlete can use any physical assists available for his/her event.  The limit must be at using machines to make the assist.  For example, bicycles cannot be used in a foot race.  However flippers can be used for swimming, and spring steel shoe extensions can be used for running - as currently used by amputees.  To some extent this is already in place.  For running and swimming, special suits are allowed to diminish friction.  For all sports the shoe is critical and used to the highest technological level available.

For bobsledding, skiing, skating, and other such sport, the level of technology of equipment is important, to the point that competitors of decades earlier could not compete.   For pole vaulters, the use of fiberglass and maybe even carbon-fiber poles seems OK; they give a further spring-shot effect to gain height.  This is technology at work!

You may suggest that volley-ball players might mount springs on their shoes to gain extra height for a truly powerful spike.  While this may seem an advantage, the springs would diminish player maneuverability for other aspects of the game.  

Why can we not open the sports to more general technology assists?  It seems the Olympics and sports in general seem to co-mingle with a traditional, semi-technological contradiction.  Why not release the sports to innovation all-around?

We want to go faster, to go higher, to go further.  Let us see just what are the limits when technology is embraced to the max.     
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  1. MerikayFebruary 18, 2013 at 11:18 PM

    I disagree. Then the completion would be even more about technology than it already is. What about getting back to simple skills like who runs the fastest or can jump the farthest?

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