The Olympics (Paralympics) post

With the Olympics happening in another 8 days, the excitement is really building up. Some call it the world's biggest reality TV show because there is so much drama about it, on and off the court. The anxiety just before a race, the adrenalin shooting up during the finals, the disappointment of not making it onto the podium etc. In fact, even before the games has started, there are already tonnes of drama that has happened: There are the athletes who have been to the Olympics previously, won medals, broke records but couldn't make it this time round for various reasons; then there are the athletes who thinks they should be in the Olympics team but their governing sports bodies thinks otherwise possibly for strategic reasons; there is the athlete who would and should make the Olympics team until she got banned due to an absolutely honest mistake with drugs; there are of course the regular heart-warming stories of athletes who do make it to the team after much effort and struggles; and this is just in Australia!

Whatever the case, I applaud the athletes for getting so far, whether they made it to the team or not. These people have worked hard with their God given abilities, and made their fair share of sacrifices to get to that elite level in their sport. Plus most of these athletes are either self-funded or they get an allowance from the Australian Sports Commission which is usually just enough for daily expenses. Come to think of it, these elite athletes remind me of what PhD candidates go through. There are definitely some striking similarities:

Elite Athletes	PhD folks
Train really hard hoping that one day they become the best in their sport.	Study and research (till their brains are fried) hoping to be the top expert in their field
They eat, drink and live their sport.	They are bogged down by their research problems 24/7
They are not really paid to train so they either work part-time or try to get sponsors or do both.	They are not really paid to do the research so they either work part-time or try to get sponsors or constantly apply for funding
When they do get to the Olympics and get a spot on the podium, they do get a moment of glory but after that it’s back to the grind of life.	When they do submit and pass their thesis, they do get a moment of euphoria but it’s quickly back to the daily grind as well.
After their peak, it seems natural for them to become coaches, motivational speakers (entrepreneurs) or stay on in sports institutes working in other areas	After their PhD, most go on to teach, do more research (the horrors!), start-up a company, or join a government agency.

Shockingly similar I say.

On a separate note, the application of engineering and technology in sports have gained much more attention this Olympics year. From technology being used to help the officials and judges do their job better, to technology that enables enhanced viewing experience all over the world; and then of course there is the (controversial) engineering and technology used to enhance performance of the athletes by reducing drag or energy loss. The latter has actually brought about a report from the Institute of Mechanical Engineers that addresses the topic of sports technology 'doping'. At the end, they recommend that engineers, sports regulators and sports institutes and governing bodies should work together to set new policies and boundaries going forward, and come to an agreement to what is misuse of technology and what is acceptable. Yup, whatever. I think there is too much hype about this issue. Engineering does a lot more things other than just 'enhance' performance of athletes' equipment. I for one am doing sports engineering research that will do nothing to enhance the performance of wheelchair rugby athletes; but my brains are almost fried trying to sort out things like Renyi's entropy, capacity dimension, fractals and how all that is linked to performance and activity classification...

Anyway, back to the games; so other than the usual Olympic events (sprint kayaking, swimming, basketball, athletics) I would watch, I would also be looking forward to some of the Paralympic events like athletics, wheelchair rugby and wheelchair racing, especially since I have worked with some of them before and seen how hard they train. It would be awesome to see them get out there and win some gold medals!

 I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified. 1 Corinthians 9:27 (NLT)