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Under Armour/Lockheed Suit Blamed For US Skating Performance
Koreantoast writes "The United States' surprisingly poor performance in speedskating, despite strong performances in recent World Cup events, has been blamed in part on an untested speedskating suit. The Mach 39, designed through a joint venture between Under Armour and Lockheed Martin, was supposed to provide Team USA with a high tech advantage, using advanced fluid dynamic models and a dimpled surface to disrupt air flow and improve comfort. Instead, performances have been disastrous thus far, with athletes going as far as modifying their suits at the Olympics to try and reverse their fortunes. The suits have caused enough concerns that U.S. Speedskating is taking the unusual step of seeking special dispensation from International Skating Union to ditch the high tech suits and switch back to their old uniforms. Teams are normally required to keep the same equipment through the entire Games. Insert jokes and comparisons to Lockheed's more famous product, the JSF, here."
Who the hell goes to the Olympics with untested gear, just hoping it will work?
Its too bad these games end up being more about your tech than your personal ability. Participants should all be required to use the same gear so that the gold is won based on personal merit.
...perhaps other countries just have better made and tested suits.
Trolling is a art,
Michel Mulder, who led a Dutch sweep of the medals in the men’s 500, offered another explanation.
“It could also be,” he said of the Americans, “that they were just outclassed here.”
... are just better skaters. With or without suit. Live with it.
It's all money, money, money. Corporate, corporate, corporate. The tickets are expensive, the travel murderous on the pocket and many seats are taken by corporate people who never show up. Then we get to the ugly bits about technology, so and so has a suit built by some high tech company of Unobtanium fibres and they are going up against Joe Somebody from Outer Slobovia, who is wearing whatever was on the rack at the local sport shop.
It's like cheering on millionaires and then getting your blood in a boil when you think someone cheated them.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
In the ancient world, Greek athletes competed naked, and rubbed with a layer of olive oil.
I advocate this as the rule for all modern Olympians.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Have the athletes skate in the nude, just like they did in the ancient winter olympics.
In the ancient world, Greek athletes competed naked, and rubbed with a layer of olive oil.
I advocate this as the rule for all modern Olympians.
Some of the gymnasts and figure skaters are 15 years old. But I bet you knew that.
I read the articles, and what's missing is the actual times.
The articles say they're slower than the other competitors, but what I'm curious about is this: are the USA skaters posting slower times in the suits than they did wearing other suits? If not, then it isn't the suits.
I know I could spend some time researching this on the Internet, but I'm feeling as lazy as the reporters that wrote the original article.
Some of the gymnasts and figure skaters are 15 years old.
And?
Remember, nudity != porn.
Heaven forbid that someone else in the world was just better and won legitimately. No, there has to be something to blame for the loss.
For every winner of gold, there are dozens who go home with nothing. Maybe it's just your turn to be the ones who go home empty handed.
It does happen.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
Sounds like they were trying to get an advantage with better gear, and it turned into a disadvantage. What, do you only want the good parts of having non-equivalent gear, and not the bad?
Seems like we should look into standardizing the gear across competitors-- if not, doesnt seem like theres much room for complaining.
I agree that situations where a technology that is unavailable to everyone can make things unfair and less exciting. The problem with requiring everyone to use the same gear, though, is that there are variables that have to be able to be accounted for. For instance, in cycling one major decision is which gears you put on your bike for a given race. Some people are better with bigger gears, and some smaller gears. Forcing everyone to use the same ones would put people at a disadvantage. Similarly with cross-country skiing, the specifics of how skis are waxed have a lot to do with snow conditions. Especially in races where participants start at different times, each racer need to be able to make that decision on their own. There's certainly a difference when everyone *could* wax their skis the same, though, and proprietary tech. But if I suddenly come up with a new way of waxing that seems better, using the same tools and the same wax, do I suddenly have to tell everyone? Most people, I think, would say no. So it gets hard to draw the line between innovation and unfairness.
The ancient Greek olympics happened in the summer, not the winter. The Winter olympics have only been around since 1924. Athletes would succumb to exposure in a short time if they competed naked.
Not in Sochi they wouldn't...
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
I'm certainly ashamed of *my* human form and have no desire to cause economic damage to any nude resort by my attendance au naturel.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Americans are very F A T and quite poor at sport.
The US has won 1063 gold medals at the Summer Olympics. The next highest existing country has won 245.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All-time_Olympic_Games_medal_table
Michel Mulder, who led a Dutch sweep of the medals in the men’s 500, offered another explanation.
“It could also be,” he said of the Americans, “that they were just outclassed here.”
The issue is that these same Americans have been winning races against the same competitors over the last two years. Brittany Bowe is a world record holder, but came in 8th this week.
To the American athlete's credit, they have been downplaying the suit's impact and giving credit to the winners. The controversy is coming from the media.
Besides those numbers are for both winter and summer olympics combined, let's look into more details.
Sweden: 191 gold, 10 mln inhabitants
Hungary: 167 gold, 10 mln inhabitants
Switserland: 91 gold, 8 mln inhabitants
US: 1063 gold, +300 mln inhabitants
It is rude and unnecessary to call Americans fat and poor at sports, but in order to compare it with other nations one should not take grand totals.
(And yes, I hand-picked those examples but on the other hand I left out Norway with 5 mln inhabitants and 107 gold medals at the winter olympics vs US 87)
The ancient Greek olympics happened in the summer, not the winter. The Winter olympics have only been around since 1924. Athletes would succumb to exposure in a short time if they competed naked.
This clip suggests otherwise. (NSFW)
And, at Sochi, there seems to be one unintentional attempt.
I'll listen to the guy who designed the Dutch suits: Bert van der Tuuk, the designer of the Dutch Olympic team's suits, said Thursday he had tried a similar ventilation panel on the back of a prototype three years ago, but it slowed his skaters by letting in air and creating drag. "The suit was blowing itself up," he said. http://goo.gl/YaDlg8
Right before the Olympics started, I read an article that referred to this exact suit and mentioned that it was going to give the Americans an unfair advantage. Lesson learned here? Spend less money on marketing (propaganda) and more money on product testing.
Is anyone else sick of being lied to and misdirected on a regular basis? "Best speed skating suit ever developed!" "Oh, wait. Just kidding!"
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.c...
Our economy is right and truly fucked at this point. The company that previously brought us the SR-71 has so many idle engineers sitting around that all they can do is waste (presumably) millions of dollars on a failure. Am I really to believe Obama and our "business leaders" that America does not have enough engineering talent? Here is an idea. How about instead of wasting their time on designing speed skating suits, they find them some productive projects to work on?
As a guy who understands the effects of cold temperatures I'm going to say that's a bad idea for the winter Olympics.
As person of either gender who watches the games I'm going to say that's a bad idea for the winter Olympics.
I stole this Sig
Next thing you know, Lockheed will blame it on the US Marines for insisting on including V/STOL capabilities.
Have gnu, will travel.
Not to mention that in the era of the original Olympics, 15 year olds of both genders were *all* married and usually had more than one child.
The notion that a sexualization at 15 is "immoral" is just the last nanosecond on the historic clock. Remember that 99% of your ancestors married at 15 or younger. By contemporary definitions, we are all descended from long lines of pedophiles. As childhood gets longer and longer, how long until 18 also becomes "immoral"?
In my opinion the US skaters are just looking for a scapegoat. The truth is much simpler, us Dutchies are completely and utterly dominating the speed-skating competition at the Olympics.
A good suit is vs a bad suit just gives you a very very marginal advantage, the rest is training and professionalism. It's not just the US that is being squashed right now, each and every country competing in speedskating is getting a good ass-kicking. ;-)
Life starts at the end of your comfort zone.
You're forgetting Olympic sumo wrestling.
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Easy fix. All nations use the same uniforms. They can have their own logos and such, base materials and construction should all be the same. No special coatings, waxes, oils.... just compete fairly. Let the best man win.