Advanced materials in sports: an advantage or ethical challenge?

• Author: Stoll, Sharon Kay
• Position: Athletic Arena

FOUR BUSINESS BUDDIES have been playing golf together for 20 years. Each Saturday, they wager lunch on the outcome of the game. Fred is grossly overweight and unfit, is the least skilled of the group, and has had to buy lunches about 95% of the time. He also suffers the slings and arrows of his buddies' competitive barbs.

One day, he learns about advanced materials in golf clubs and balls that will improve his game markedly. In fact, when he tries the new clubs, his drives increase by about 25 yards, and with the addition of new composite balls, he picks up accuracy. He decides that all is fair in love, war, and golf, and never divulges his secret. He invests big bucks and gets the best equipment on the market. For the rest of the summer, Fred is highly successful; his golfing buddies are amazed at his improvement; he gets to razz them a bit; and they buy the majority of lunches. One might argue that Fred cheated slightly, but he has been the goat for 20 years. He deserves to win a little.

The Freds of the world no longer have to be the goat. They now can lower their scores significantly without a whole lot of skill or fitness. Advanced material design in equipment technology has changed the sporting experience to one in which many individuals can succeed without much talent or training. A good deal of the drive for developing these new technologies has to do with competition--that is, advanced materials can help people win. The question behind all of this, though, is whether the purpose of sports is about gaining advantages and getting even, or about people participating, enjoying, and improving their motor skills, as well as their overall health and fitness.

Advanced materials with mechanical and physical characteristics well in excess of those exhibited by conventional high-volume materials such as steel and aluminum alloys have contributed significantly to the heightened performance of athletes and recreational players. Specifically, sports equipment materials have been vastly improved in strength, ductility, stiffness, temperature capability, forgiveness (fracture-toughness and durability), and low density, which have revolutionized the world of athletics.

What does this mean for, say, the amateur tennis player? No longer does one need to spend hours developing skills or fitness. The traditional tennis racquet was originally made of wood, with a somewhat awkward and clumsy feel. The head was small and, when the ball made contact, there often was a resounding resonance through the racquet to the player's forearm. In order to be effective and to hit the ball accurately, one had to have a certain level of motor skill.

However, all of that has changed for the novice or recreational player. New technology uses piezoelectric fibers to convert mechanical energy into electrical energy for sensing ball impact, and microchip control circuits that react to the ball by stiffening the racquet and dampening vibrations. What results is a counterforce in the throat of the racquet within the first millisecond of ball impact. This provides more power than a conventional racquet that bends and vibrates upon impact. In fact, it is said that the racquet hits the ball and the player is just along for the ride.

Advanced materials have revolutionized the composition of skateboards, surfboards, skis, snowboards, javelins, golf clubs, golf balls, tennis racquets, football helmets, playing surfaces, baseball and softball bats, ad infinitum. The carbon-fiber vaulting pole permits a pole-vaulter to soar up to 18 feet. Javelins with spiral tips enable the thrower to reach dazzling distances. Golf balls with special dimple patterns and core design improve loft and spin so even a novice player can hit at least 400 yards. Stiffer carbon-fiber racquets reduce arm vibration and larger heads increase surface area in tennis, squash, and racquetball. Bicycles with new types of wheels and leg positions can increase speeds up to 60 miles per hour. Discuses with weight distributed as close as possible to the perimeter help the thrower to increase accuracy and distance.

If the goal of sports is competition and winning, advanced materials will continue to improve the equipment so that less efficiency, fitness, and skill are necessary to play. If that is the purpose of the sporting challenge, consider how advanced materials affect a human being as he or she participates in a variety of sports.

Enter ethical reasoning, which is taught today at the University of Idaho and other higher institutions to develop evaluative methods for those sports, physical education, and various other fields. Ethics in this context...