For instance at the World Series a baseball hit into the third level will be able to be recorded by GPS as to exactly how far it was hit and it’s trajectory to formulate where it would have actually landed had the stadium been flat. Thus we will be able to tell who was the greatest homerun power house of all times, perhaps even who is on steroids based on their body mass, speed of pitch, GPS data and ‘haptics’ (body movement and form).

Wouldn’t it be cool to be watching the World Series on TV and instant information about a homerun appearing on the bottom of the screen? Sounds like a whole new potential betting arena, not only how many homeruns a person will hit, but exactly how far they will hit them?

A football kick would be immediately known the exact yardage, every play near the sidelines would be instantly called in or out of bounds and there would never be any question as to if a football actually broke the goal line. I can hear the referee unions screaming foul already as they will no longer be needed or have jobs? Ouch? Soccer balls, off sides, out of bounds? Yes all possible via GPS data.

With sensors getting smaller and GPS units being used in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles of smaller and smaller size for Micro Air Vehicles and RFID imbedded chips, this technology believe it or not is ready for golf balls as well? All you need is a little imagination. So there you are Tiger Woods with a PDA device in your hands which measures the exactly where the ball is, how far to the next hole, picking up the data from inside the golf ball itself and the flag in the hole. Way-points are displayed also as to where the sand traps are, lakes, edge of fairway and the rough surrounding the green.

My sense is we'll see these things adopted eventually.

A huge network of sensors monitors everything from fire alarms and parking spaces to security systems and even the temperature of the turf's roots in the heated soccer field.

Sensors are also placed in the inflatable cushions made of transparent plastic that wrap the stadium. The cushions are illuminated in red, blue or white, depending on the teams playing. The pressure of the air in them can be adapted to deal with weather conditions such as heavy rain or snow.

Loaded with sensors and a memory card, the 'sweep ergometer' allows curlers to measure how well they are performing one of the game's crucial tasks: sweeping the ice in front of the stone to help guide it perfectly to the target.

The downward force exerted by the sweepers, how far the brush travels across the path of the stone and details on the fitness of the players are all collected by the broom and fed into a computer for analysis.

The development is a milestone in the world of curling, where the exact effects of sweeping have long been debated and continue to be a matter of guesswork for most of the game's 1.4 million players.

Sports fans may soon be wondering whether their "shares'' in 49ers quarterback Tim Rattay are falling or whether they should add Raiders wide receiver Randy Moss to their portfolio.

That's because a San Mateo startup called Protrade Inc.... plans to launch an online venture that assigns a value to pro athletes as though they were publicly traded companies."It's much more similar to a sports stock market than a fantasy sports league,'' said Protrade co-founder Mike Kerns....

...Fantasy sports are now a major hobby for an estimated 32 million people whose average household income is about $89,000. Fantasy sports leagues typically use a scoring system based on the statistics of players in sports such as football, baseball and basketball.

But Kerns and Ma have developed a more intricate system to determine a pro athlete's value based on performance during different game situations and contribution to a team's wins or losses. The analysis also takes into account factors that could affect performance, such as trade rumors, injuries, contract holdouts, coaching changes and arrests for crimes.

Protrade members can then watch the value of players in their portfolio rise or fall, deciding, like a day trader, whether to buy low or sell high.

Scouts and player personnel managers at pro sports franchises beware. The market is going to vote on your judgments.

And now someone cares enough to put figures to it. A former athletic trainer for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Kevin Guskiewicz started the UNC center at the request of the NFLPA, which finally wanted to know if the premature death figures were true.

In the last five years, Guskiewicz has surveyed approximately 2,700 former NFL cases, or nearly 70 percent of the players on roll.

Hey, Kevin: How'd you get so many guys to cooperate?

"Their wives wanted to know more than they do," he said.

His research is encouraging and alarming.

Good news: The mortality rate of the players surveyed is "pretty much in range" with the general population.

Bad news: Men who played in the '40s and '50s have a BMI "significantly lower" than players from the '90s, who haven't reached their mid-50s yet.

The average BMI of an NFL player in the '90s is 32, which the government officially classifies as obese. Some register in the 40s, nearly twice the normal range.

While genetics is only one part of the formula for greatness, scientists agree that in order to be truly dominant, an athlete has to be — to some degree — a genetic freak. Olympic champion swimmer Michael Phelps, for instance, propels himself through the water with a pair of feet that operate like flippers. Not only are they large (size 14), they’re so outrageously flexible that the swimmer can lie down flat on his back, legs outstretched and, while doing so, touch the tips of his toes to the floor. “He’s not your average bear,” says his coach, Bob Bowman.

Andy Roddick, owner of the fastest recorded tennis serve (155 miles an hour), owes much of his power to the unusual flexibility of his ribs and spine. Bob Prichard, president of Somax Sports, a California clinic that works with top athletes, says Roddick’s ability to arch his back increases the effective external rotation of his arm to 130 degrees, 44 percent better than the average tennis pro.

Mia Hamm, the now-retired soccer star, may owe some of her famous stamina to a genetic anomaly. In a test run by the Gatorade Sports Science Institute, she produced less than one liter of sweat an hour, 25 percent to 50 percent less than normal. Bob Murray, the institute’s director, says this trait allows Hamm to perform for longer stretches without having to stop to guzzle fluids.

Much of the technology developed by UK Sport is highly confidential, particularly the systems created by the agency’s performance team.

Technology here is cutting-edge, and helps UK athletes compete on the world stage. The best example, says Fellows, is the bike used by Jason Queally and Britain’s other gold medal cyclists.

‘In terms of design and fabric, the bike was quite revolutionary at the time,’ he says.

As well as helping to fund the bike’s development, Fellows says UK Sport evaluates technological research in other sports.

‘If you look at rowing, sailing and cycling, Britain does very well because there is a technology applied with a cutting edge,’ he says.

Score one for the human rights brigades. They've been raising hackles that Arabs strab four year old kids to camels to 'jockey' them. It's cruel and dangerous and I'm happy to see the practice end. I wonder: will the kids be controlling the robots with remote control joysticks?

HAMPDEN Park’s transformation into an ‘instant’ athletics stadium is the key element of the audacious and innovative bid being mounted by Glasgow to win the right to host the Commonwealth Games in 2014. Scotland on Sunday has learned that Hampden will host the main athletics events, but the hallowed turf of one of the most famous football stadia in the world will not be used.

Instead a ‘platform’ will be built several feet above the existing pitch and its surrounds, on top of which will be created a full Olympic-size athletics arena with an eight-lane state-of-the-art running track, long-jump pit, high-jump and pole-vault zones plus a full throwing area for shot put, javelin, discus and hammer.

At a stroke, the instant-stadium plan with a wind and water-tight platform supporting the arena will overcome Glasgow’s biggest drawback as it prepares its bid - the lack of a purpose-built athletics stadium of sufficient size to host the Games.

Since its controversial £65m redevelopment, Hampden Park’s playing area has not been of sufficient size to host a full athletics programme as demanded by the Commonwealth Games. By extending the platform over several rows of seats at the front of each stand, the instant arena will meet all the requirements for Olympic-standard international track and field events.

The technology exists to create such ‘floating’ arenas - Sapporo Dome in Japan was a World Cup venue in 2002 despite the entire pitch being kept outside the stadium and rolled into the venue on a cushion of air only a short while before the matches.

Technology levels the playing field -- literally. As cities and countries jockey for major sporting events, this will help smaller nations and localities step to compete with larger competitors.

Michael Schumacher, who takes fewer holidays than any of his more flamboyant peers, put his achievements into perspective by admitting that they pale in comparison with what Armstrong has done.

"What he is doing is so special," the German driver said. "I know what it means to do what I'm doing, but to do what he is doing is really, really massive and impressive."

The piece also notes:

Unlike Schumacher, Armstrong does not enjoy the benefit of a racing machine which is obviously better and faster than all of the rest.

The Americans is powered by human will and the German's by modern technology.

This is s slight oversimplification. As I've noted here, Schumi benefits from more money and great technology, but he's also a phenomenal driver -- smart, disciplined, brilliant work ethic. Lance has all those qualities too, but as I noted here, he also has terrific technology. It's a complicated picture.