Is using technology an unfair advantage?
Sportspeople are gradually embracing technology as a way to improve their performance. Austin (2007) stated that competitive advantage matters in sport. Hence, each sportsperson or team has the liberty to enhance their performance at all costs. For decades, athletes have not been able to adopt technology due to strict regulations.
Austin (2007) posited that using technology in sports does not make an athlete to gain an unfair advantage. If an individual or team is in a position to use technology, they should be allowed (Konig, 2003). Nevertheless, there must be rules to ensure that athletes do not use technology to gain unfair advantage.
If technology does not make an athlete to drift from the skills involved in a particular sport, then it should be acceptable (Austin, 2007). In some instances, athletes use technology to train, but not in competition. The technology helps them to identify their weakness and work on them.
Such application is reasonable and does not amount to unfair advantage. In other words, athletes should be allowed to use technology as long as it does not eclipse their primary skills.
Is technology turning sports into entertainment?
Technology is turning sports into entertainment. People are using technology to enhance the appearance of sports grounds. In the United States, event organisers use massive light-emitting diode screens to augment the ambience of sports arena. Technology has led to inception of in-arena entertainment (Tamburrini & Tannsjo, 2005).
In the past, teams used ribbon boards and video to project their playing grounds. However, technology has enabled teams to go a notch higher and improve the display of their playing grounds.
For example, teams are turning to “companies like Quince Imaging to convert their entire playing grounds into a three-dimensional (3-D), jaw-dropping highlight displays” (Tamburrini & Tannsjo, 2005, p. 45).
Tamburrini and Tannsjo (2005) claim, “Brooklyn Nets, Kentucky Wildcats, and Miami Heat use the 3-dimension technology to entertain their supporters” (p. 46). The teams use technology to change the appearance of the basketball courts.
Is the technology turning sportspeople into slaves?
Baker (2000) asserts that human inquisitiveness, inventiveness, and cleverness have combined over a long period to develop increasingly superior technologies. The technologies have helped humans to conquer numerous hurdles that they could not have managed.
However, the primary challenge is that technologies are gradually eroding human’s capacity to do things naturally. If no action is taken, it will be hard for people to discharge even minor duties without technology (Konig, 2003). Today, technology is turning sportspeople into slaves. Cases of doping have increased worldwide.
The majority of athletes can no longer perform without using performance enhancement drugs. Pharmaceutical companies are developing drugs that boost oxygen uptake. According to Baker (2000), technology is sucking the life out of the majority of athletes.
It has become hard for athletes to break records set by their predecessors without using drugs. Besides, athletes like swimmers and cyclists are doing all they can to incorporate technology in their swimming suits and bikes respectively. They do not trust the common swimming suits and bicycles.
What is fair play in sport and how does technology affect it?
Boxill (2003) stated that fair play “is commonly understood as a set of norms for rule conformity and justice” (p. 75). Every sport has rules and regulations that all athletes ought to honour. The rules are aimed at ensuring that some sportspeople do not get an unwarranted advantage at the expense of their competitors.
In sports, fair play aims at establishing a common ground for all members. It outlines how sportspeople are supposed to behave so as to uphold what is ethically correct and useful for sports. According to Boxill (2003), fair play is aimed at supporting the moral objectives of sports.
He argued that sportspeople are happy when they are capable of realising their capacities. The capacities may either be inherent or acquired. Technology has made it hard for sports personalities to establish a clear distinction between ethical and unethical sports. McNamee and Fleming (2006) argue that technology is steadily reshaping sports.
However, there are no clear guidelines that define ethical sports, therefore, making it difficult to implement fair play. Sports institutions have not determined how they want sports to be in the era of rapid technological growth. In sports, everyone desires to win. Hence, the majority of sportspeople do not consider fair play. Instead, they all try to take advantage of their rivals.
Despite the hardships in implementing fair play, technology has significantly helped to ensure that sportspeople stick to established rules and regulations. In the past, there were few cases of doping. However, it did not mean that athletes were not doping.
However, there were inadequate ways of detecting the offences (McNamee & Fleming, 2006). Today, technology has enabled sports institutions to test and identify most of the performance-enhancing drugs that were once hard to detect. In soccer, technology is used to correct numerous mistakes that referees make.
For instance, introduction of the goal-line technology has enhanced fairness by ensuring that referees make informed decision (McNamee & Fleming, 2006). In addition, technology has improved fair play in gender-related sports. Technology is used to ensure that there are no cases of “gender frauds” in sports.
It has ensured that men do not masquerade as women and participate in women’s sport.
References
Austin, M. (2007). Running and philosophy: A marathon for the mind. New York: Wiley-Blackwell.
Baker, W. (2000). If Christ came to the Olympics. Kensington: UNSW Press.
Boxill, J. (2003). Sports ethics: An anthology. New York: Blackwell Publishing.
Konig, E. (2003). Criticism of doping: The nihilistic side of technological sport and the antiquated view of sport ethics. International Review for the Sociology of Sports, 30(4), 247-260.
McNamee, M., & Fleming, S. (2006). Ethics audits and corporate governance: The case of public sector sports organisations. Journal of Business Ethics, 73(4), 425-437.
Tamburrini, C., & Tannsjo, T. (2005). Genetic technology and sport: Ethical questions. London: Routledge.