The London games have begun. Does your favorite athlete have a leg up? Are they aware of the latest formula for speed? The newest way to win?

The development of bigger and stronger bodies brought many record-setting Olympic performances in the past. However, some feel the growth spurt is waning.

France's National Institute of Sport, Expertise, and Performance examined track and field and swimming events from 1891 to 2008 and reported that record-breaking performances have declined sharply since 1988. They concluded, Our physiological evolution will remain limited in a majority of Olympic events."

With the decline in physiological evolutionary advancement and more consistent programs of nutrition and training, there has been a leveling of the playing field, so to speak. This has increased demand for the utilization of new ways to improve performances.

NPR recently aired the story Technology Could Give Athletes An Edge At Olympic Park. The piece included a discussion with Philippa Oldham of The Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Oldham explained how technologies such as spray-on clothing and 3D-printed shoes are assisting Olympians.

Greg Bishop in a New York Times piece Long Before London Games, James Bond Tactics explains that France even created an agency in its sports ministry to boost medal counts through athletic surveillance.

Bishop writes, France is not the only nation looking for an Olympic edge through stealth. Someone from the United States BMX cycling team surreptitiously rode the competition course in London for this summers Olympic Games with a three-dimensional mapping device, specifics of which officials declined to reveal, so the Americans could build and train on a replica of the Olympic track.

Aerodynamic bicycle helmet designs, hydrodynamic swimwear, carbon fiber blades used for prosthetic limbs, and running shoe spikes that grip the track more efficiently, will provide athletes an edge until each team employs them or they are banned from Olympic use.

Does it make you wonder who and what is more important, engineers, gear, or the athletes?

If competition were merely comprised of physical movements, mechanical engineers would hold all the cards when it comes to Olympic medal counts. Yet, there is a mental component to athletics. And many feel that sports psychology outweighs the mechanical manipulations of clothing and gear.

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