This August in Beijing, Olympic athletes will rely on the best gear in the world to perform at their peak. Here's the top tech, plus reviews of everything you'll need to have the hottest summer ever.
Photos: Thomas Hannich
When 100-meter world record holder Asafa Powell takes off, he'll get extra lift from his AeroFly spikes. Instead of the usual stitched fabric panels, the uppers are strengthened with Nike's Flywire technology: criss-crossed cables woven from Vectran liquid-crystal polymer threads—the same stuff used in the Mars rovers' airbags. The cables resist stretching to retain lateral stiffness and conserve forward momentum. The aerodynamic skin covering the web is so light and thin you could be forgiven for thinking Powell's kicks have been painted on. Best yet, they weigh a mere 6.6 ounces.
$N/A, nike.com
Here's the set of wheels that 2004 gold medalist Paolo Bettini will use to defend his road race title. The Tarmac SL2 is almost all carbon fiber—wheels, hubs, saddle, crankset, and frame with tubes that get wider or change shape as they approach the oversize ultra-rigid bottom bracket. What all that gets you is a bike that's stiffer than an Islay single malt served straight up—in fact, the company's stiffest racer ever—but still flexible enough to absorb the blacktop's worst bumps and ruts. Meanwhile, a shortened headtube lets Bettini stay in an aggressive but aerodynamic position on this 15.8-pound rocket. Va l'Italia!
$8,500, specialized.com
Like any footballer, US Soccer star Natasha Kai wants the ball to go exactly where she intends; now more than ever, it will. This 14-panel ball reduces the number of places where three panels touch by more than half and reduces total seam length by 15 percent. The result is a much rounder ball, giving athletes more accuracy and control. The microdimpled outer skin, made of Adidas' proprietary PSC Texture, boosts both power transmission and swerve, so strikers can truly bend it like Beckham. It also lets goalies get a better grip—with Kai and the rest of the US women's team favored for gold on the pitch, they'll need it.
$130, adidas.com
Michael Phelps moves like a marlin through the water and has six gold medals from Athens to prove it. But even the fastest fish can be caught, which is why Speedo developed the LZR Racer. Since the suit's February debut, Racer-fitted swimmers like Phelps have shattered almost 40 world records. Its secret is slick support. The fabrics have been wind-tunnel tested for surface drag, and the seams are all ultrasonically sealed—no stitching to disrupt water flow. And thanks to 3-D body scans of 400 elite athletes, the suit provides core support in the abdomen to make swimmers more streamlined and efficient. No wonder jealous competitors have called it "technological doping."
$550, speedo.com
To win the Olympic marathon, you've got to stay on pace and keep your cool—literally. Seventy-five percent of your body's energy expenditure goes to temperature regulation. In 2004, Deena Kastor's Nike-designed pre-race ice vest kept her core temperature under control before the event and helped her win the first US marathon medal in 20 years. Nike updated the vest for 2008, laying it out in a series of triangles to provide maximum contact with the skin. Each wedge has an ice chamber enclosed in an insulating layer that's coated with flexible aluminum to deflect Beijing's baking August heat.
$N/A, nike.com
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