Giro has built a not so small empire with its line of helmets and shoes, and at Interbike last week the company unveiled the Empire, a new custom shoe developed specifically for Taylor Phinney to use in the 2012 Giro d’Italia and Olympic Games. Video after the jump
No matter where the athletes might be from at the Olympic Games many have something in common – they’re going to the tape. Not the video tape to see a replay but rather brightly colored “Kinesiology” tape that can help enhance performance by increasing blood flow and thus help certain muscle groups during completion and recovery.
This includes the Rocktap, which is a think, stretchy yet still innovative and high-tech athletic tape that can be used to treat injuries from shin splits, IT band, plantar fasciitis, achilles tendon and even runner’s knee. It can help reduce swelling, decompress swollen tissue and increase venous blood flow and help improve range of motion. Read the rest of this entry »
While the eyes of the world are on London and the Olympic Games, another world record was set for fitness. This time it wasn’t in the pool, on the velodrome or on the track – it was on the treadmill! Cybex International announced that Forest School in London set the farthest distance covered on one treadmill in 24 hours. The maker of premium exercise equipment provided two 750T treadmills for the challenge.
This was a team accomplishment with runners consisting of teachers, parents and students age 16 to 18, who ran a total of 437km – or nearly 272 miles – in a 24-hour period. This broke the previous record, which was set by a German team in 2010, by more than 15km. To accomplish this record distance the team averaged 11.3 miles per hour, which is a pace better than 5:18 per mile. Read the rest of this entry »
From GearPatrol: Viewfinder: 10 Videos To Get You Fired Up for the Olympics
As London becomes the stage for the 2012 Olympic games, it’s hard to grasp just how much has happened. New arenas have been built, unfathomable amounts of technology have been put into place and scores of athletes have arrived, each ready to unleash every last ounce of honed-to-perfection competitive energy. As countries beam with pride — ours is cranked to 11 — it’s difficult not to get fired up. Read the rest of this entry »
This week Adidas introduced its new adizero Primeknit running shoe, its first one-piece upper performance design that features seamless engineering technology. The shoe, which is the first of its kind for a running shoe, uses new technology to digitally knit the entire upper in a single continuous piece.
The knitting fused yarn provides flexibility and support where it is need, and no lining or reinforcement is necessary as the strength of the shoe comes from the yarn itself, which is knitted in distinct grid patterns to provide ventilation. This provides precision construction while eliminating additional materials and thus producing little waste. Read the rest of this entry »
The 2012 Summer Olympics are now just weeks away, and the USA Track & Field team officially has unveiled its new uniforms from Nike, which as we previously reported feature the golf-balled inspired dimples to help make the apparel all the more aerodynamic.
The Pro TurboSpeed is a skin-tight, full-body suit that has been wind-tunnel tested and is features the dimples to help decrease resistance. Nike also unveiled two Olympic shoes – the Nike Zoom Superfly R4 and the Nike Zoom Victory Elite for sprinters and middle distance runners respectively. Both feature Nike’s Flywire technology. Read the rest of this entry »
The construction of a new park at the site of the 2012 London Olympics is well underway but will not fully open to the public until at least one and a half years after this summer’s games are complete.
On Friday, officials declared the completion of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park’s centerpiece, the Orbit — a 377-foot tower of twisted steel that gives visitors stunning panoramic views of the city. But the structure — which somewhat resembles the Eiffel Tower — is already receiving criticism from the host nation. Olympics organizers previously faced backlash over the cyclops mascots for the 2012 games, ticket policies and the bright, flashy logo.
From The Washington Post: London 2012 Olympics: Orbit tower complete and already drawing criticism Read the rest of this entry »
Riding a thin board down a track made of ice, and doing it headfirst would be enough to scare the life out of you (And we say this with absolutely no disrespect to Georgian luge racer Nodar Kumaritashvili, who was tragically killed last week at the end of a training run. Our condolences go out to his family and his 
teammates).
Maybe that is why this sport is called the “skeleton,” which was permanently added to the Olympic Games in 2002. The sport evolved from a form of tobogganing called cresta sledding, and dates to the 1880s. The difference today is that riders only use their bodies to guide the sled, instead of using skates to help steer. The U.S. Olympic skeleton team prepared with help from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York where engineering professor Timothy Wei and his team built a special custom-made simulator to help understand wind resistance. But they should know against a highly trained athlete, resistance even of the wind variety if futile.
We wish all the skeleton and luge riders safe runs!
