Think of a sport. Any sport. Nanotechnology is paving the future for that sport. Well, hopefully. There are a lot of sports that you could have thought of. But from hockey to tennis, or swimming to golf, nanotechnology has made an impact.
One of the easiest sports to imagine an impact on is cycling. Nanotechnology makes things light right? Exactly. Carbon nanotubes, found in resin, are used to make strong and very lightweight bicycle frames. This can push the weight of bikes below the 15-pound mark which make a massive difference when it comes to riding up inclines.
Now, probably one of the hardest sports to imagine nanotechnology impacting is swimming. What, are they modifying the water or something? Not quite. About 168 world records were broken when swimmers wore suits coated with water-repellent nano-particles. These suits increased buoyancy and reduced drag because of their polyurethane panel construction. There were so effective that there were banned from all swimming competitions for the unfair advantage they provided.
What about nanotechnology in your balls? Tennis balls. Well, actually Wilson, one of the most popular brands of tennis balls has started using nanotechnology. They introduced the double-core tennis ball where the inner core is coated with clay nanoparticles. This allows the ball to be sealed much better making it difficult for air to escape allowing the ball to retain its bounce for twice as long.
And of course, I saved the best sport for last. Ice Hockey. Not biased at all. Hockey sticks are weak. Hockey sticks are expensive. So, it’s not fun when they break during play. It’s a loss of money and gives up a scoring opportunity. Well, why don’t we just make them out of rebar or concrete? Ya, I wonder why. We don’t actually need to. Carbon nanotubes are just as strong as rebar and are significantly lighter allowing for a stronger and lighter stick. Yes, please.
Now you have seen that nanotechnology gives such a large advantage to sports equipment that it even ends up being banned in some scenarios. If you want an advantage in whatever sport you originally thought of, perhaps you should look to nanotechnology. Just don’t tell the referees.