Being able to swim 2.5 miles, bike 112 miles, and run 26.2 miles is unthinkable for a person without legs. However with modern technology even the unthinkable is overcome. Amazing video, check it out!

For a professional athlete identity is extremely important. The sport goes a lot further than just winning a few races or games. Specifically in the sport of triathlon, professionals make a living by the sponsorships they acquire. It is not enough to win races and gain the prize money. Sponsors are what enable the athlete to dedicate his or her time to the sport so that the monetary necessities are met. The internet allows a professional athlete to promote its sponsors. Often, athletes are depicted wearing the brand of the sponsor or telling others about where they can go to receive associated services. Overtime, it is as if the athlete becomes the product of its sponsorships. When someone talks about Nike, the immediate thought is Michael Jordan, as if the two are intrinsically connected. If someone talks about Trek Bicycles the associated athlete is Lance Armstrong. Collectively as teams the same scenario of branding is the result. An example includes USPS for the United States professional cycling team. Eventually, the brand that an athlete represents becomes part of the personal identity.

Those that are athletically driven may have issues with privacy as the world becomes more digitized. As a personal trainer at a gym in Utah, I had access to the member’s information about health, fitness, gym attendance, address, and phone number. All of this information plus more was stored on the health club database. Information that was not requisite for my job responsibilities was still made accessible. Conversely, information that the billing or the membership department had was not necessary for their job task either.  Although the health club tried to keep personal information of its members private there were leaks in the system and workers knew things they did not need to know. If this is an example of a gym that takes privacy seriously and still has flaws, it’s disheartening to think of what might happen in a corrupt organization with free reign on personal information.

Outside the world of professional sports, many novice and intermediate athletes use digital technologies to enhance their athletic experience. Items such as GPS sports watches, heart rate monitors, iPods, and cell phones have become common tools for this purpose. Also, digital spaces such as www.mapmyride.com or www.runkeeper.com allow athletes to track workouts, navigate terrain, and record vitals and time while sharing this information with other training friends. In this sense technology has been enabling to humanity in accomplishing what it will. There is a debate to what degree technology determines culture. Surely technology influences culture but I would emphasize the fact that many technologies are created to support a culture that is already existent. Take the game of basketball for example. The sport has been around for almost two hundred years but the technology around the sport has not always been present. Overtime and as the popularity of the sport increased, the need to broadcast to a wider audience became apparent. Live television allowed viewers from across the world to passively participate in the sport. Continually, other advances went in to effect to make the sport more interesting and to amplify the culture and uniqueness inherent. The same can be said for other sports. As a need arises in any sport technology will then fulfill that need according to the level of demand. In this manner technology influences culture but does not determine it.  

When it comes to endurance sports, Lance Armstrong is at the top of the list. Lance has won seven times at the Tour de France. Cycling has been a long time European sport. When Lance Armstrong won the first tour in 1999 it sent the French into an emotional hysteria. This had been a French sport and now a newbie hotshot from America had won it. Well, that first win at the tour wasn’t the last; Lance continued to win six more tours even after having to deal with cancer. The story of Lance’s success at the tour and battle over cancer inspired to create an organization called Livestrong. Millions of yellow wrist bands were sold and the proceeds went to help fight cancer. Livestrong over time developed into a popular brand of products and clothing. There is now a Livestrong website that offers information on diet, nutrition, exercise, health concerns and risks, and training groups and rides. The all-encompassing website has discussion forums where people can talk on a variety of topics about health and exercise. In the world of exercise, some great information can be shared and produced in these forums. The collective intelligence found on this site allows individual health enthusiast, novice athletes, professionals, and coaches alike to share and discuss their knowledge and experience. This form of sharing information can be seen as produceage where there is no direct producer or consumer; rather, a conglomeration of knowledge that continues to be critiqued, revisited, revised, used, and stored.

It is not uncommon for athletes to use their fame to create businesses. Restaurants have been a business for many current and retired professional athletes. Retired NFL player Jerome Bettis has a highly successful sports grill in Pittsburg. Another example is Michael Jordan’s steak house in Chicago. With the name and brand athletes are able to create from professional sports big business becomes the result. Michael Jordan’s influence outstretches game day watching and restaurants. Michael Jordan has product lines in shoes, cologne, apparel, and a variety of sports equipment. The monopoly Jordan has been able to create translates online in the form of media convergence. Information and products are available online and a culture has been manifested for those that associate with basketball. Nike Jordan’s are much more than just a shoe. It represents a lifestyle and culture of success. People around the world will buy the Jordan products in hope that they will have a little bit of the Jordan success within themselves.

http://www.nike.com/jumpman23/

Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and so forth have become extremely popular in the 21^st century. The uses of such sites go beyond simple conversation and connections with friends and family. Business use social media to promote products, services, and information. Professional athletes take advantage of the social media phenomenon by retaining and acquiring a large following of fans and to even strategize for upcoming race events. One such triathlete, Chris McCormack, had done just that. In his book, I Am Here to Win, McCormack talks about some of his tactics long before the race even started. McCormack’s strategy aimed at creating alliances and saying just the right things on his Twitter account to get other race day contenders thinking and behaving as he had wanted.  As a result, McCormack was able to use social media to create alliances with certain athletes which enabled a win at the 2010 Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii.