5 new sports that seemed fantastic yesterday
Sport And Fitness Find X2 / / December 28, 2020
1. Fighting giant robots
The creators of science fiction films and computer games have long shown us what the competition of giant robots can look like. But recently, machine combat has moved from screens to reality.
Two companies are simultaneously developing manned robots for sports: the Japanese Suidobashi Heavy Industry and the American MegaBots. In 2017, they fought the metal giants. In the first duel, the Iron Glory robot played on the side of the United States, and the Kuratas robot represented Japan. The fight lasted only a few seconds: Kuratas accelerated and knocked his opponent down with a powerful pincer blow to the chest. In the second battle, the Japanese robot fought another American development - the Eagle Prime model. And this fight turned out to be much more spectacular: the competitors fired cannons, dropped cars on each other and used chainsaws to attack. This time the MegaBots team won the fight.
The companies are now developing new machines and hope that in the future, entire stadiums will watch the battles of giant robots.
2. Drone racing
Another sport that exists now, but may become more popular in the future. The concept of the competition is simple: drones rush to the finish line at a speed of over 100 km / h, simultaneously overcoming various obstacles. At the same time, people control the flight: they control drones using remote controls. In order to go around all the obstacles and lead his ward to the finish line first, the athlete must feel the dimensions of the drone as accurately as possible and have a fantastic reaction speed.
Drone races can be seen live in many cities around the world. The Dron Champions League competitions are considered the largest today - they include individual and team “races”. Moscow also hosts annual competitions as part of the Rostec Drone Festival. With the development of technology, they become more and more spectacular.
3. Lightsaber fencing
So far, watching battles with real lightsabers will only work in movies, but this may soon change thanks to opening scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard.
While working on the creation of a quantum computer, they discovered a new way for photons to interact. When two or more particles fly through the rubidium cloud and cool to almost absolute zero, they "stick together". If there are many photons, it turns out something like a lightsaber from "Star Wars". This phenomenon requires study, but, perhaps, in the future in fencing, instead of swords, completely different weapons will be used. Spectators for such fights will definitely be found, at least among fans of the epic movie. Until then, they will have to watch staged battles using ordinary glowing swords.
4. Cyborg competition
Athletes with prostheses are already taking part in sports competitions and achieving impressive results. For example, in Alexa Hunt from birth there is no left arm below the elbow - it is replaced by a prosthesis. Despite this, the athlete achieved success in professional tennis and was included in the ATP rating in 2017.
Prosthetics technologies are constantly being improved, there are models that surpass human limbs in strength and other parameters. In 2016, the championship was held in Switzerland Cybathlon for people with bionic prostheses. The participants were divided into six categories depending on the technologies used: neurocomputer interface, functional electrical stimulation, hand prostheses, leg prostheses, wheelchair and exoskeletons. The next tournament is scheduled for September 2020.
It is possible that healthy athletes will start using body modifications in the future. It's just not clear who, in this case, should get the laurels of the winners: athletes or developers.
5. Zero Gravity Football
This is the only sport in our selection, which, most likely, will always have to be watched from the computer screen, and not from the stadium tribune. How far technology will go in the future is unknown, though.
Until a person has mastered other planets, and space flight is too expensive, you can play football in zero gravity on Earth. Zero Gravity conducts amateur duels aboard a modified Boeing 727. Now they bear little resemblance to traditional football matches, but the director of the corporation is confident that space sports has a great future. He suggests that in zero gravity it will also be possible to arrange wrestling and gymnastics tournaments.
What sport of the future would you be interested in? Let us know in the comments!