By harnessing the power of technology, Paralympic swimmers are gaining unprecedented insights into their performances, which empowers them to chase their dreams of gold in Paris and beyond.
One such device, resembling a fishing rod handle, is being used to measure the instantaneous speed, acceleration, and power of athletes as they move through the water. Attached to the athlete's body on one end and held by researchers on the other, the device transmits real-time biomechanical data to a computer, allowing athletes and coaches to optimize speed distribution.
"The device is connected to the end that I hold by a cord. The chip inside can connect to my computer, allowing us to calculate the distance the cord is pulled each frame, and from that, the acceleration. It can help us analyze the change in velocity over the cycle," said Li Shudong, a teacher at Ningbo University's School of Sports Science.
A more AI-driven system is added for more analysis, with underwater and poolside cameras automatically capturing and stitching together multi-angle footage. Advanced AI models then track key body points and provide objective feedback on the athlete's speed, angles, and trajectories, helping coaches and athletes identify areas for improvement.
"For example, when an athlete enters the water like this – his body forms a 'banana shape' – he will feel an obviously increased drag. The solution is to make the body slightly less than 180 degrees at the point of entry, allowing for a more streamlined entry," Li said in explaining how the system works.
For athletes like Zhang Li, who was born with cerebral palsy and relies only on her arms to propel herself through the water, these technologies are game-changers. Zhang claimed six golds and one silver medal at the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2021 Paralympics, and is now using the cutting-edge system to strive for faster results.
"The margins between us in the same disability class are just fractions of a second. The technology allows us to more clearly and objectively compare and identify where we can improve, and where we are left behind," said Zhang, a member of China's 2024 Paralympic swimming team.
These advancements are also benefiting visually impaired athletes, like Yang Bozun, a five-time Paralympic swimmer who will be competing in Paris. Yang now trains with the added assistance of earphones, which allow his coach to provide instant feedback and instructions on his movements and timing while in the water.
"Even in the pool, the instructions from the coach come through the earphones clearly. If they notice something off with my movement, they can immediately remind me, and I can correct it at once. Knowing when to accelerate, when to slow down, when to turn, and when to sprint to the wall - this real-time feedback has reduced a lot of injuries. It's a warm comfort for us athletes," said Yang.
Cutting-edge tech empowers Paralympian athletes ahead of Paris games
Shanghai, a leading force for Chinese modernization, is accelerating the pace of building itself into a science and technology innovation center with global influence.
The tech-savvy metropolis is now speeding up the transition from structure building to function strengthening. Taking strengthening the capability of fostering original sci-tech innovations as the main task, it is pursuing both sci-tech innovation and institutional innovation to significantly improve its comprehensive strength in science and technology as well as the overall effects of innovations.
Over the past 10 years since Shanghai began building itself into an international science and technology innovation center, it has reaped fruitful results in sci-tech innovation, which has pushed the metropolis' GDP across the 4-trillion-yuan (about 570 billion U.S. dollars) mark.
In 2023, Shanghai's total research and development expenditure accounted for 4.4 percent of its GDP, and the city's fiscal expenditure on science and technology rose by 36.7 percent to 52.8 billion yuan (about 7.47 billion U.S. dollars).
Driven by science and technology advances, Shanghai's industrial transformation has sped up. The combined scale of the three leading industries of artificial intelligence, integrated circuits, and biomedicine in the city has reached 1.6 trillion yuan (about 226 billion U.S. dollars).
At the National Local Joint Humanoid Robot Innovation Center in Shanghai's Zhangjiang Science City, Qinglong, an open-source general-purpose humanoid robot with a height of 182 centimeters and up to 43 active degrees of freedom, is being trained to pick up oranges.
"After some training, the robot will be able to complete this move by itself when it encounters a similar scenario in the future," said Shi Zhihua, trainer of robot Qinglong.
Thanks to an advanced control software, Qinglong can skillfully perform fast walking, avoid obstacles, go uphill and downhill, and resist impact.
"We plan to build a venue that can simultaneously train 1,000 robots by 2027," Shi said.
The Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility (SSRF), a third-generation medium-energy synchrotron light source facility with 46 laboratories, has been operating around the clock to serve researchers from around the country, whose experiments cover a wide range of fields such as life sciences, materials science and chemical catalysis.
"We are using the SSRF's light to observe the phase change process of this material when it's heated to 1,100 degrees Celsius," said Song Shuang, a PhD candidate of Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
"Our team is developing materials for the energy sector," said Miao Zhikai, a researcher of Tianjin University.
"We are developing cathode materials for sodium-ion batteries," said Li Guodong, a researcher of Fudan University.
Though the laboratories at the SSRF have been running at full capacity, researchers still have to apply for them months in advance, reflecting the vibrancy of innovation in Shanghai.
Shanghai blazes sci-tech frontiers to boost innovation-driven modernization
