While the Olympics and Paralympics are against its competitors using technological and motorized enhancements, the upcoming cyborg Olympics is doing the opposite and encouraging people with disabilities to use it.
Officially known as the Cybathlon, the event won't place an emphasis on amazing physical feats like completing the high jump or the 400-meter, but will instead focus on smaller, seemingly mundane tasks like climbing stairs or slicing loaves of bread. Robert Riener, the event's organizer and a professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland, told IEEE Spectrum the Cybathlon is "less about force and speed, and more about control of the body and the device."
The cycling race, for example, will have its paraplegic competitors using electrical stimulation to move their legs. Meanwhile, amputees with powered arm prosthetics will have to open jars of jams; those with leg prosthetics must walk across stepping-stones.
Riener says the cyborg Olympics are a result of his own frustrations towards the current technology available to people with disabilities and how they're not as useful as one may expect. He hopes the event will spur innovation in the industry and lead to the development of better prosthetics.
80 teams will compete in the Cybathlon when it comes to Switzerland this October. Both the BBC and Japan’s NHK are covering the event. It there's enough interest, the next Cybathlon could take place in Tokyo alongside the 2020 Summer Olympic Games.
Kyree is a tech news writer for IGN. Follow and talk to him on Twitter @KyreeLeary.
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