Advantage play: technologies that changed sporting history

Tells the dramatic stories of thirteen technological breakthroughs in two thousand years of sporting history used to gain an advantage in sport.

Novel materials are never far away: rubber for rugby and tennis balls, carbon fibre for bikes and prosthetics, polyurethane for swimsuits.

Breakthroughs crop up throughout history, not just for modern football boots but for the javelin of the ancient Greeks and even the original starting line at Olympia.

Our obsession with sporting data is not new although our methods of collecting it is: phones, sensors and monitors.