sport

The ‘Improved Games’ wanted to show that the future of sport is doping. Things didn’t go as expected

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It is still too early to know if the Enhanced Gamesthe famous ‘Enhanced Games’ that were held this weekend in Las Vegas with some rules on doping infinitely more lax than those of any competition recognized by the IOC, will achieve their commercial objectives. Whether or not it has been an effective marketing campaign. What is already clear is that they have deflated at a sporting level. Its organizers promised an evening full of heart-stopping records and marks by athletes ‘enhanced’ with steroids, EPO or testosterone, but they have obtained only one record. The question that remains is… And now, what? Doped athletes? To the Enhanced Games Many things may be blamed on them and their philosophy will be more or less convincing, but there is one thing that cannot be blamed on them: going head-on. The event, held over the weekend in Las Vegas with the pomp of a great showadvanced its objective already in its name: ‘Improved Games’. Its purpose was to organize an athletics, swimming and weightlifting competition in which athletes could doping almost without restrictions. The only limit was that they did not use illegal drugs and the drugs had been prescribed by a doctor. From there, wide Castilla: anabolic steroids, testosterone, EPO… The use of prohibited equipment was even allowed, such as polyurethane suits similar to those that the International Swimming Federation (FINA) banned years ago. The idea was very simple: to prove that, in order not to remain “stuck” and allow athletes to give “the best version” of themselves, official sport must rethink its vetoes. @enhanced_games A $1,000,000 WORLD RECORD SWIM! Kristian Gkolomeev wins the Men’s 50m Freestyle in 20.81 and takes home $1,000,000 bonus + 250,000 first place finish and reclaims his 50M Freestyle world record. ♬ original sound – Enhanced Games The value of a good show. Although the idea is provocative and has earned it enormous media exposure, the organizers of the Enhanced Games wanted to give the event the appearance of a great show. The competition was held at Resorts World in Las Vegas, in a stadium with capacity for 2,500 people and after months of a speech measured to the millimeter to generate expectation. In his favor he had two great claims, beyond the controversy. The first, a team of media athletes. Among the athletes who agreed to participate, Olympic medalists or podiums from world tournaments such as Leidy Solis (silver in Beijing 2008), Fred Kerley (silver in Tokyo 2020), Kristian Gkolomeev (silver at Gwangju 2019) or Hafþór Björnssonweightlifter who reached a world record in 2025 and is famous above all for playing “the Mountain” in ‘Game of Thrones’. And that among a wide etcetera. 42 athletes. In total, 42 athletes (sprinters, swimmers and weightlifters) participated in the Enhanced Games, the vast majority of whom were doped. Guardian precise that of all of them there were only three people who chose to participate in the tests in a ‘clean’ way, without consuming chemical substances that would be equivalent to a disqualification in any official tournament. Their participation in the event gave an extra point of epicness to the Enhanced Games and reinforced its main challenge: Can the consumption of testosterone, EPO, steroids or polyurethane suits really make a difference? Don’t say sport, say money. The second claim that we referred to before explains what Gkolomeev, Björnsson and many other athletes who agreed to participate in the Enhanced Games were doing yesterday in Las Vegas. Beyond their greater or lesser harmony with the underlying message, if they decided to compete it was because the organization promised great awards: $500,000 per test, half of it for the winner. If he also managed to set a world record in one of the “definitive tests” (100 m dash and 50 m freestyle) he could earn an extra one million. And how was it? Not as good as the organizers (probably) expected. Despite the expectation generated, the advertisements who claimed that records were already being broken in training and throughout the hype generated around the use of chemicals, the reality is that the first Enhanced Games only managed to crown a world record. The Greek swimmer did it Kristian Gkolomeevalmost in extremis. Under the watchful eye of the organizers, he managed to complete the 50 meter freestyle in 20.81 seconds, slightly lower than the 20.88 official record achieved by the Australian. Cameron McEvoy in March. Proof of the relief that this meant for those responsible for the Enhanced Games is that, after the race (and in further demonstration that the tournament was more intended as a show than a sporting event), the executive director of the ‘Games’, Max Martin, he knelt before Gkolomeev to proclaim his victory. The mark of 20.81 will not be officially valid, but it will allow the Greek to pocket the bonus of one million dollars. “Maybe next year I’ll beat it again,” he said. A pyrrhic victory. Martin did not save on superlatives when evaluating the competition and went so far as to celebrate that the Enhanced Games have “changed the world”. “We have seen how records were broken and how 12 athletes broke personal bests,” celebrated. The reality is that the balance of the first ‘Improved Games’ has been discreet and has certainly fallen far below the expectations generated by the organization itself. Beyond the consumption of doping substances allowed in the event, Gkolomeev, for example, scratched his record with the help of a ‘supersuit’ banned by FINA. Doped vs ‘clean’. Apart from the fact that there were athletes who broke their “personal records” thanks to doping, as the organization claims, in some cases the competitions were won by the few athletes who claimed not to use drugs. This was the case, for example, of Hunter Armstrong, who won the 50 m backstroke against two doped rivals, or the sprinters Tristan Evelyn and Fred Kerley, who in addition to taking the winner’s check he threw a jibe to their opponents: “They have to train a little harder, … Read more

Tourism has turned Norway into the latest theme park. And the business of hunting the northern lights in a risky sport

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It happened a few years ago in Icelandwhen the authorities saw forced to close temporarily access to a natural canyon after thousands of visitors hiked it off marked trails, damaging vegetation and eroding the terrain in a matter of weeks. What had been an almost unknown corner for years suddenly became in a viral phenomenonleaving an unexpected impression: a remote landscape transformed into an overflowing place in a very short time. Now it’s your turn to Norway. From quiet city to saturated destination. What was for years a peaceful northern town has transformed into a global phenomenon: Tromsø has gone from a medium-sized university town to receive massive waves of visitors attracted by this new hype in the form of northern lights. The growth, driven largely by social media, has local capacity overwhelmed to the point that, in high season, tourists far exceed to residents. We are talking about collapsed streets, strained services and constant pressure on infrastructure that reflect how tourism has turned the environment into something very different from what it was. The rise of a business without control. The problem arises because, at the same time, it has emerged a parallel industry of unregulated guides that operate outside the law, taking advantage of the low barrier to entry and high demand. With a car, a mobile phone and access to aurora tracking apps, these operators offer improvised routes that compete with legal services, eroding both the local economy and the quality of the experience. In fact, they counted in the New York Times that the authorities estimate that a significant part of these activities escapes official control, generating income that does not revert to the community and multiplying the problems. Mass tourism turned into operational chaos. The result is a scenario where the search for auroras has become unpredictablewith convoys of vehicles traveling on roads, constant route changes and a general feeling of disorder. Specialized police teams patrol the city and its accesses looking for these activities illegal, but clandestine operators adapt quickly, sharing information and using tactics to avoid controls. This constant game between surveillance and evasion has turned the activity into something much more complex than a simple tourist excursion. Failed experiences and feeling of being scammed. As a result, for many visitors, the promise of a unique experience is has translated into frustrationdeceptions or unexpected situations, with stories of tours that are not completed, guides who disappear and keep the money or even police interventions in the middle of the tour. The contrast between the idyllic image of the destination and the reality experienced by some tourists has begun to leave its mark in reputation of the place. What should be a memorable natural experience sometimes becomes a chaotic and unreliable process. A destination converted into an extreme theme park. All of this has led to a deeper transformation: one where the northern lights are no longer just a natural phenomenon, but the center of an intensive industry which works almost like an outdoor theme park. The pressure to capture that perfect moment has turned the activity into a constant race against time, weather and competition, raising the risk and tension with each outing. Thus, what was once pure contemplation now comes closer and closer to an experience extreme where improvisation and business weigh as much as nature itself. The impact on those who live from the phenomenon. They remembered in the Times that for legal and experienced operators, the situation has changed radically, facing unfair competition that reduces prices and deteriorates standards. What should be a season of celebration has turned into a struggle to maintain viability of the business in a saturated environment. Another one, as already it happened in iceland and its volcanoes or more recently on Everesta change that reflects a broader reality: when tourism grows out of control, even the most spectacular destinations can end up trapped in your own success. Image | PXHere In Xataka | Touristification has made Mercadona find itself with a rival in Barcelona: 24-hour supermarkets In Xataka | There is something worse than Everest turning into a mountain literally full of shit: scam rescues

sport has been disguised as therapy to charge you more money

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There was a time when gyms smelled of liniment and rusty iron. Success was measured in guttural screams and soaked T-shirts under the military motto of the no pain, no gain. That era is dead. If you walk into a fashion studio today, you will smell like incense and see pastel colors. The industry has understood that to capture the masses it had to stop selling exhaustion and start selling “connection.” As explained by trend magazinesWe have entered the era of strong Elegance. This new concept, far from being a brand, is defined as a natural evolution of training “better, not more.” The goal is no longer to destroy muscle, but to “connect with your body” through softness and technique. It is the birth of Cozy Fitness or gentle training. However, behind this facade of Zen calm, the economic projections are dizzying. It is estimated that the global market for Pilates and Yoga studios will reach 520.61 billion dollars by 2035driven by a population that values ​​mental health over gross physical appearance. Redefining effort The paradigm shift is not accidental; responds to a post-pandemic demand for mental health. According to a report by Les Mills99% of respondents say they feel “happier” after training, and 42% prioritize exercise specifically to improve their mental well-being. This has caused low-impact disciplines, such as Pilates, to be the most booked class for the second year in a row. But let’s not fool ourselves into thinking that “soft” means “easy.” Specialized media They warn that disciplines like sweep (a fusion of ballet, pilates and yoga) generate a real metabolic and mechanical overload. By working with isometry and bringing the muscle to fatigue without heavy weights, strength and postural improvement are achieved. This is where the narrative turns perverse. Under the promise of “liberation” and “self-care,” the industry has commodified the management of the self. An in-depth academic analysis on the philosophical dimensions of medical sciences suggests that modern fitness It is a byproduct of neoliberal ideology. We are instilled with the notion of the “entrepreneurial self”: health and aesthetics become an individual responsibility for success or failure. Wellbeing is sold as a commodity, and the individual is forced into constant “self-optimization.” If you are not healthy and radiant, it is because you are not managing your body “company” well. This pressure manifests itself in new obsessions such as Protein Chic. We have gone from eating out of necessity to consuming protein-enriched products (even popcorn or water) as a status symbol. The protein shake has become in a religious ritual, a tool to feel that we have “fulfilled” the mandate of physical productivity. Furthermore, sport has become a class filter. Fashion competitions like Hyroxwhich combine running and functional exercises, have become at an exhibition of lifestyle where you pay a high registration fee (about 70 euros) to show that you can afford to suffer in a way cool and gamified. The drivers of change: loneliness, identity and fashion To understand how we got to this point, you have to look at who is filling the rooms. Generation Z has turned the gym into its new bar, desperately seeking a tribe instead of cold machines. A report from 2025 reveals that 36% of young people regularly go to these centers, not only for the physical, but to combat loneliness and find community. Their priority is belonging, which explains the mass exodus toward group classes versus solitary training. The large chains have read this emotional need perfectly and have changed their business model: they no longer sell an hour of exercise, they sell identity. The success of brands like Brooklyn Fitboxing, which expects to invoice 50 million eurosis based on gamifying that community. In the same way, Pilates Club has skyrocketed his income 60% in Spain by focusing on “operational quality” and selling the feeling of belonging to a select and exclusive club. This aesthetic obsession has permeated everything, even technology, which has abandoned crude plastic to disguise itself as high jewelry or become invisible. “Technological minimalism” is the new norm: bracelets like the Xiaomi Smart Band 10 They are now launched with ceramic straps to be worn as fashion necklaces, while devices such as smart rings or heart rate sensors Whoop they bet on “silent monitoring”. It is the triumph of constant but discreet data: the obsession with measuring the body 24/7 without looking like a cyborg. Where are we going: From aesthetics to biology The immediate future of the industry delves into this sophistication. Trends for 2026 point to ‘Body Literacy’: according to elleusers no longer want generic recipes, but rather understand their own biology, hormones and stress response. We move from aggressive “bio-hacking” to personalized and clinical understanding. In Spain, the market is entering a consolidation phase. According to reports from consulting firms such as BDOlarge operators will stop opening centers indiscriminately to focus on increasing the average income per customer (upselling) and offer comprehensive family services. The gym wants to be the center of the social life of the entire family. However, there are cracks in this perfect pastel world. While the sector premium talks about connecting the soul, the segment low cost go on being a battle of prices and efficiency, reminding us that “spiritual well-being” remains, in large part, an affordable luxury. Even technology is showing signs of exhaustion. Technology analysts They point out which devices like him Apple Watch They seem to have reached their ceiling in sports. They have become excellent “entertainers” of well-being (Wellness), but they lack the technical depth of a real coach, remaining on the surface of motivation with synthetic voices that congratulate you for closing rings. As Ale Llosa, founder of one of these new success methods, summarizes, in Vogue: “Soft is fashionable, but without strength there is no resilience.” The question we have left, as we close the locker room locker, is whether this new era of fitness is really making us freer and stronger, or if it has simply built us a prettier, … Read more

We have accepted that sport is “medicine” for the body. Now science is discovering its side effects

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Physical exercise can be prescribed as a drug in doctors’ offices, even though it is not packaged in a simple pill that we take. This is because the evidence behind it has made it more than clear that playing sports can prevent a large number of chronic diseasesI know even have a very good old age. But behind all this, too There is a negative part behind doing physical exercise. Its side effects. If we accept exercise as a drugwe must also accept that every drug has a leaflet, specific doses and of course some adverse effects. That is why as a society we have the problem of having begun to sell the fact of “exercising” in a generic way, ignoring the fine print that this task has, as recognized by the Spanish Heart Foundation itself. And it has a very simple solution: personalizing physical exercises per patient. The problem of metaphor. The slogan “exercise as medicine” is undoubtedly an excellent marketing campaign within the world of public health, but for science there are several important flaws. As different scientific studies point out, exercise does not act like a classic drugsince it does not have a predictable response in a patient as if it occurs as a pill. This forces us to always think that the effect can be very different for each person. In this way, by calling exercise a drug we can make invisible the diversity of individual responses. And there is no universal “squat pill”, since doing this exercise in a specific person can be very beneficial, but in another it can be be the origin of a pathology due to overload. And all because we throw ourselves into exercise without planning how to do it, since we find it very easy to pick up some weights and start building biceps. The damage numbers. We often hear that it is a great danger to stay sitting on the couch, and it is true because they are many diseases related to a sedentary lifestyle. But according to different studies done in the United States, people who meet or exceed the recommendations for moderate or vigorous exercise They have a 44 to 66% chance of developing musculoskeletal injuries. than subjects who remain inactive. In addition to this, although cardiovascular health improves with physical exercise because the heart reduces its heart rate, for example, the “maintenance cost” of the physical body increases dramatically with the amount of exercise done. A question of biases. Without a doubt, this is one of the most critical points that scientific literature reveals regarding the lack of transparency in clinical trials related to exercise. This is something that was seen in an analysis that included 103 trials on knee osteoarthritis, where it was found that 6% of the participants suffered direct damage from this exercise. But the most worrying thing is not the number, but the low information: many patients who abandon studies due to pain or discomfort are not classified as “victims of adverse effects”, which generates an artificially high perception of safety. This problem is repeated in oncology, where the motto “exercise is medicine in oncology” live with non-trivial adverse events which have forced us to propose much stricter monitoring systems to protect patients. We pass each other sometimes. The underlying problem in this case is undoubtedly recommending intensive or complex programs without a clear benefit/harm relationship compared to an alternative that is much simpler. But, on the other hand, we also fall into the phenomenon of “quaternary prevention” making medicine focus on avoiding harm from its own interventions. by overmedicalizingnullifying the benefits of physical exercise. The necessary consensus. In this way, the authors who popularized the concept of ‘exercise as medicine’ explicitly recognize that exercise is not without risks. Even the WHO itself In its guides it maintains that inactivity is the greatest population risk, but there is fine print that must be taken into account: Exercise should be ‘prescribed’ starting with a low intensity, and not opt ​​for maximum intensity from the first day. This causes a person who has spent years on a couch to begin to carry a lot of weight, for example, and end up injured. Pain is not always bad, and the patient must be educated so that they see that fatigue from the gym does not have to be medicalized with pills. Patients with cardiac risk must be evaluated to prevent uncontrolled exercise from aggravating the situation. Be supervised. The conclusion in this case is that exercise is obviously necessary and without a doubt it is one of the practices that can prevent the appearance of many diseases. But we always have to be aware of what we do. Loading the body with a large amount of exercise from minute 0 can cause significant injuries or the aggravation of diseases that are already present. In this way, the possibility of being in a gym with trainers who can advise on the progression curve that should be followed can be an interesting idea to have the benefit of exercise without the consequences of doing it aggressively. Images | Jonathan Borba In Xataka | Doing cardio or strength training: for science there is no debate about which is the ideal exercise after 50

Elite Spanish sport is so precarious that athletes are beginning to be sponsored by OnlyFans

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OnlyFans, the British platform that hosts primarily erotic content made by its own users, has begun to sponsor high-performance Spanish athletes in minority disciplines. The objective is to clean up the image of a business with questionable fame, taking advantage of the fact that sponsorships are essential for these athletes to continue competing professionally. A situation of dependency (mutual, although it is clear who handles the money here) that has raised the first suspicions. What OnlyFans has done. The paddle tennis player Vero Virseda, the boxer Jennifer Miranda and the surfer Alazne Aurrekoetxea now wear the platform’s logo on their kits, in a movement that the journalist and popularizer Mara Mariño described in an investigation for Article14 as part of a calculated normalization strategy. Mariño describes the strategy as “a masterful marketing maneuver” that seeks to reposition itself in sectors with massive reach and a good image such as sports and fitness. How he does it. The operation has a double aspect: on the one hand, it pays them to display the platform’s logo on their kits and where they compete; On the other hand, it offers them the possibility of opening personal accounts where they can monetize exclusive content showing workouts, sports routines, nutrition advice or aspects of your personal life. This hybrid formula also allows OnlyFans to present itself as a general content platform, not exclusively erotic. It gets complicated. Mariño warns in Article14 about the unforeseen consequences of this normalization: “When athletes display an OnlyFans sticker on their surfboard, they are legitimizing for youth audiences a platform that can attract young girls without awareness of the risks.” In 2022, Spain also approved the General Law 13/2022 on Audiovisual Communicationwhich forces video sharing platforms with pornographic content to implement effective age verification systems. At the moment the thing is in testing phase. Other European countries are also strengthening this restrictive trend. In 2024, France gave its regulator Arcom the ability to block pornographic sites that do not verify the age of their visitors. Germany blocked access to Pornhub and RedTube after determining that their parent company Aylo “prioritized its own financial interests over the goal of protecting minors.” A legislative tightening that contrasts with OnlyFans’ strategy of gaining legitimacy through sports sponsorship: just now that access to adult content platforms is facing the greatest regulatory restrictions in its history. International context. The phenomenon of athletes turning to OnlyFans has global reach and reveals the economic gap faced by high-level athletes in less high-profile disciplines. In Brazil, volleyball player Key Alves, who plays for the Osasco club, has publicly declared that her income on the platform multiply by fifty what you perceive as a professional athlete. Another striking case: the Canadian pole vaulter Alysha Newmanbronze medalist in Paris 2024, who has a turnover of approximately one million euros annually through OnlyFans. During the last Olympic Games they also talked about the topic the British diver Jack Laugher, the New Zealand rower Robbie Manson and the Mexican diver Diego Balleza. OnlyFabs has come to sponsor, in fact, complete sports teams, such as the American Racing Team in the second category of the Motorcycle World Championship. To whiten. The arrival of OnlyFans to the world of sports responds to a business need: transform its public image to attract investors. According to Bloombergthe platform has begun talks to obtain financing, seeking a valuation of more than $1 billion. But potential investors demand as a fundamental condition that they distance themselves from pornographic content that currently represents 50% of its creators’ profiles. Already in 2021, CEO Tim Stokely declared that “sportsmen and athletes are a field in which we are seeing great growth.” Some obstacles. This image-washing operation has encountered some significant institutional resistance. The International Cycling Union (UCI), for example, prevented Scottish cyclist Lewis Buchanan from participating in official competitions in April 2023. if it displayed OnlyFans advertising on his helmet, taking advantage of its regulations that prohibit showing advertisements of pornographic content. He sportwashing. What OnlyFans does bears similarities to this term coined in 2015 (in response to the European Games in Azerbaijan, which were used to divert attention from the country’s government’s human rights violations), which describes how countries with problematic histories use sport to whitewash their reputations. OnlyFans would be taking advantage of the prestige and visibility of sport to dilute its association with pornography. As sponsored tennis player Alexandre Müller said“OnlyFans wants to change its image, it’s not just about erotic things. That’s why they sponsor me.” Header | Alazne Aurrekoetxea In Xataka | A man from Cadiz is being the star of the Italian news. He has been fired from his job for using a hydraulic penis

Crossing the A-5 works on foot has become a risky sport. The Madrid City Council solution: AI

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He burial of the A-5 It has become a headache for the neighbors. It is not only that traffic jams are the daily routine or that the works have forced the route to be diverted, creating a kind of Mario Kart where drivers have to avoid unexpected curves, unexpected exits or the appearance of cranes and heavy machinery. Pedestrians also begin to look with horror as his life becomes complicated every time they have to cross from one side of the highway to the other. The promise Being able to cross the road at the top of it surrounded by a park instead of dark and uninviting passageways is closer. But, for now, crossing from the Batán neighborhood to Lucero or Aluche is nothing short of a pipe dream. One in which the Madrid City Council has decided to intervene with artificial intelligence. With a little AI A couple of weeks ago, the large underground work on the A-5 appeared with a couple of unexpected traffic lights around Villagarcía Street, near the junction with Batán. The intention was to regulate traffic at one of the most complicated intersections in the area. Taking advantage of this unnecessary action, the neighbors began to demand that zebra crossings be set up so they could cross on foot to the other side of the road and have a quick access to the neighborhoods of Lucero and Aluche. In this way, residents would also have access, for example, to public transportation that circulates a little less than a kilometer from their homes, schools or work centers but which are much more difficult to reach on foot since the works began. Now we know that the Madrid City Council is going to take advantage of these works to also test one of the latest purchases announced: traffic lights with artificial intelligence. They explain in The World that current traffic lights already have cameras to control road traffic. This will help, taking advantage of an artificial intelligence system, to regulate traffic on demand. The traffic lights will detect the number of pedestrians waiting for the green light to turn and the system will decide when to let vehicles and pedestrians pass. Thus, it will open the way to the latter for a more or less time depending on demand. The area is conflictive because there are schools that are currently wedged between the Casa de Campo and the underground works of the A-5. With the installation of traffic lights with artificial intelligence, an attempt will be made to prioritize the passage of pedestrians at peak times when entering and leaving educational centers. The use of the system, as we said, is not new. a few weeks ago the Madrid City Council confirmed the installation of these systems in various parts of the capital, especially complicated by the large influx of pedestrians. For example, they already adjust the steps at the intersection of Calle Princesa and Alberto Aguilera, on the Segovia and San Isidro bridges (Madrid Río area) or in the Plaza de Grecia next to the Metropolitan Stadium where traffic lights with artificial intelligence regulate the passage if there are concerts or large events to improve fluidity. Photo | Xataka and Madrid City Council In Xataka | The residents of Madrid had been longing for the A-5 to be buried underground for years. Now he’s making their lives miserable.

Goal has found in extreme sport a new market niche for its glasses

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Goal has just presented a new model of its new smart glasses and does so by repeating experience with Oakley. However, instead of betting on a mounting -oriented assembly, it is committed to a niche of Very concrete user For their Oakley Meta Vanguard: the High intensity athletes who want to share their training and experiences. Although my incipient belly and the increase in my pulsations when climbing stairs betrayed That was not the user profile Objective to which these connected glasses were directed, the goal engineers let me try them equally. Although when I took them, I still did not feel like putting on Run a marathon Or pedal for 200 km, I must recognize that it is a product very well focused on its audience. Real sports design The first view makes it clear that we are not talking about glasses that fit the outfit that anyone would choose to go out with the friends of the afternoon or on vacation, as would probably do with the Ray-Ban Meta Wayfarer or with them Oakley Meta HSTN. They are not casual glasses, but their enveloping design already points to sports use. The first thing that surprised me when they took them was their weight. Despite being glasses with considerable glass coverage and thick sideburns that end up integrating with the frontal glass, only They weigh 66 gramswhich are 13 grams more than the Meta HSTN. While it is true that they are not as light as the “analog” sports glasses (which are around 35-45 grams) The Vanguard targets use some tricks that Oakley has applied in their design to look lighter. Instead of dropping the weight on the ears and the bridge of the nose, they distribute it along the surface of the pin that remains in contact with the head. In addition, the bridge is rubber and removable, which allows the glasses to settle correctly on the nose and prevent it from sliding with the movement or sweat. This accessory would be the equivalent of the headphones pads, but to adapt the goggles bridge to your nose. Even at the risk of being shot, I could not resist jumping and moving my head as if he were the guitarist of a rock group of the 80s. Not a millimeter moved of your position. That led me to remember the experience of my partner Javier Lacort With the Oakley Meta HSTNthey did move when it ran. The most prominent element are polarized and interchangeable prizm lenses that protect from the sun even on the sides. They are more heavy than conventional sports glasses, but the three -point adjustment system (bridge and after the ears) distributes the weight of the glasses so that it is barely noticeable. How could it be otherwise, glasses They have IP67 protection And they resist sweat, rain, splashes, dust, snow and even mud. In addition, the lenses have anti -ñazos resistance in their four glass finishes: 24k (golden), black, road (violet) and saphire (blue). If the crystal will be damaged (for a fall, for example) or want to change style, it can be replaced by another replacement that is sold separately by 85 dollars. Audio, Chamber and … Action !! So far, the Oakley Meta Vanguard could be any of the sports glasses to the use of the Oakley catalog, but it is now when it is time to discover the goal hand. Something that I realize is that, beyond the obvious design change, in reality (and with some nuances that I will designate below) the avant -garde technology does not contribute (almost) nothing new with respect to the HSTN goal, with which Share 90% of its equipment of sound, camera functions or functions of artificial goal intelligence. That makes the “wow” effect be diluted to be before a new product. Like the rest of the goal smart glasses, it has a system of five proximity microphones. That makes, although whoever is by your side also has finish glasses, when running voice commands for the goal assistant AI, only the glasses you wear are activated. Although I could not check it for myself, the goal engineers assured me that these microphones had optimized to filter external noise and wind, more than reasonable in a device with which it is possible to respond to a call while descending skiing the slope of a snowy mountain or traveling the paths of a forest at full speed. What I could try is the sound. Second surprise: They sound really good. As they told me in the finish line, the speakers are 60% more powerful than in previous models. As in the previous models of finish glasses, the speakers are located at the bottom of the pin and oriented towards the auditory pavilion, which makes the sound arrive naturally. Against all prognosis, the bass had enough presence and gave the feeling of canned sound. Again, I could not try them in a noisy or wind environment, but in a room with several people around me talking animatedly and with an average volume, the audio remained well defined. One of the details that I could see is that up to 60 or 70% nobody by your side listen to what you are listening, from that level a murmur is heard (as in normal headphones) but it is not possible to clearly identify what it sounds like. The main difference of the Vanguard target with respect to the other two models of target glasses, is that the camera is not on one side, but is located just above the nose. When working, an LED light turns on the upper edge. This location and its 122º field of vision It makes the feeling of being recording exactly what you see, since the perspective of the glasses coincides with that of your eyes. As in the Oakley Meta HSTN, this 12 megapixel camera records with a 3K resolution at 30 fps. In addition to being able to take photos, there are three … Read more

There is a sport that is colonizing thousands of tennis courts in the US and expands strongly in Spain: Pickleball

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Francisco Javier Ronda the 50 and has no qualms about recognizing that the first time he played Pickleballafter a friend insisted, it seemed “a children’s game.” Simple. Affordable. Without more. Over time, however, that racket sport that seems to combine tennis ingredients, paddle and bádminton liked it so much that now, Recognize to The countryhe is preparing to exercise as a judge. It is not a unique case. The Pickleball has been gaining adherents in the United States (often colonizing spaces until not so much reserved to tennis) and now it is starring in an international expansion that has taken it To China… and Spain. What is Pickleball? At this point it is quite likely that you have already heard of him, that a relative/friend/co -worker told you how well the last time he threw a game or may even have participated in one. If not, nothing happens. He Pickleball It is summarized easily. Basically it is the new fashion sport, a discipline that It seems to mix Tennis elements, Ádel, Bádminton and table tennis so effectively that in the US It is colonizing Thousands and thousands of tennis courts. And how do you play? The Pickleball is a racket sport, but a little after a game is seen, it is proven that it is very different from tennis or paddle. To begin with, it is played with a rigid smooth surface shovel that must be adjusted to certain measures and a perforated plastic ball. The track is relatively small, of 13,41×6.10 metersalthough it is something different from those used in Bádminton: the line that delimits the “non -volley” area is 2.13 m from the network, which reaches some 86 cm high in the center. The matches are played individual or in pairs. How are the rules? Relatively simple. Players must get the ball to pass over the network and fall inside the track respecting the “Do not volley” area when they hit the blows. Another important guideline is that the serves should be made without lifting the arm from the bottom line and falling out of the non -volley zone. If it is the first blow of a team, the ball has to bounce once on the track before the opponent returns it. Two other keys that you should keep in mind if you are going to set a game is that if the ball bounces twice on the same track the game ends and that only the team you take can score points. To complete a successful game you need 11 points and have two advantage over opponents. The huge (and growing) popularity of the Pickleball led in 2024 to the Royal Spanish Tennis Federation (RFET) to dedicate A section on your website, in which the rules can be read in detail. Sports brands like Nike too They have launched to explain its dynamics. So successful? Yes. Pickleball is not new. Its origins can go back to The 1960salthough its popular boom is much more recent. Ethan Singer recently published A wide report in The New York Times in which it shows how in the US there are courts and more tennis courts that are being reconvirting on pickleball tracks taking advantage of two great advantages: its smallest size and that this last sport awakens more and more enthusiasm. According to Singer’s calculations, the result of the analysis of tens of thousands of aerial photographs, only in the last seven years more than 26,000 outdoor pickleball courts have been prepared in the country, many based on old spaces dedicated to tennis. Use Pickleball raises the total number of tracks to more than 68,000. Are there figures? As for the number of people who practice pickletball in the US, the data can vary depending on the source that is consulted but reflects a base of notable followers … and growing. Some talk about millions of fans and a bag of practitioners that have been growing for years double digit. “It is said that next year it will be the most practiced sport there, surpassing basketball, and in Spain a fairly significant growth is expected, although I do not know if as in the US because it is difficult,” assures to The country Miguel Díaz, president of the Reft. Is it something exclusive to the USA? Not at all. Pickleball is entering strong In China, Australia And of course Spain, to cite only a handful of examples. In 2023 the Higher Sports Council He recognized her (together with the touchnnis) as a new sports specialty, last year the Reft reserved an own section on its website and not long ago the Federation and Dupr reached A pact To create a national ranking. This institutional recognition is only the reflection of the growing interest that awakens among racket sports fans. In recent years we have seen how they practiced it world stars of tennis, he sneaked into the programming of celebrations such as Almeria Fair And they opened new spaces To practice it. Does A few months In fact, the Lafuente Pickleball Hub opened in the district of Villaverde, which It is claimed as “the largest Indoor Pickleball Center in Europe.” “In the US already played almost 50 million people and it is estimated that in Spain the number in 2023 was 20,000,” assures The RFET. Why this success? For the federation it is more than clear: the picklet has managed to find the key. “His success lies in being an easy -to -learn sport and very entertaining, which adapts to the level of each player and that is why he can be played by people of different ages and conditions,” The organization reflects: “It is very entertaining and motivating, since during the game there are long and fast balls in which the level of the judges marks the intensity and rhythm.” “At first it seemed like a children’s game, until you get on and realize that there is much more technique behind,” coincides in The country Francisco Javier Garrido, … Read more

For years, “fecal doping” is a problem in elite sport. Now science wants to democratize it

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In 2019, a team of scientists from Harvard University monitored bacterial flora of 15 Boston Marathon runners during the previous and the posterior week. They made many discoveries, but one especially interesting: after the competition everyone suffered a significant increase in bacteria of the genus Veillonella. It was already known that exercise Altera the microbiota And, in fact, it was not especially surprising that these bacteria (which break the lactic acid and, therefore, reduce fatigue) were in there. What they wanted to discover was something else. Therefore, they took samples of that flora and introduced them into mice. The result was an increase in very significant physical resistance. Since then, there are people trying to take advantage of this. The treasure that hides the intestine. Now a France team has studied the intestinal microbiota elite athletes with high aerobic capacity (soccer players and cyclists). The central idea was to see if there were differences in the composition of the flora and in its functionality with respect to non -athletes. The first surprise is that the more sport the subjects were doing, the lower the diversity of their microbiota. And I say it is surprising because, as Rosa del Campo tells us Through SMC Spain“This is associated with an unhealthy condition.” However, in this case it seems that “it is justified with the specialization of these bacteria in the intestine.” That is, by submitting the microbiota to more exExigent environments, it is self -appointed to optimize. However, As he says The Ramón y Cajal hospital researcher is not the most interesting. “The most striking thing is when they evaluate the ability to reproduce this in mice.” What have they done? They have taken very sedentary and very athletes and “have transplanted their feces to mice for several days.” The result shows that “aerobic effort capacity in mice is conditioned by the microbiota.” Because? Although research is still preliminary, everything seems to indicate that “it is mainly due to glycogen consumption, good sugar control and production of short chain fatty acids.” What implications does this have? Well, it seems that enough. Remember that for years the anti -doping agencies work to fight against microbiological doping. In fact, everything seems to indicate that “Fecal transplant“s a usual practice in certain elite sport environments. But the question, as always, is whether this can be climbed. If we can begin to intervene in the microbiota in a massive way to improve the health of large layers of the population. For years, the boom of probiotics has caught Als great pharmaceuticals with the changed foot and has flooded the market with pseudoscience. However, the possibilities (as we see) are on the table. It is increasingly silent than health will be conquered with the stomach. Image | Julien Tromeur | Miguel to Amutio In Xataka | This pill is a peanked but can save your life

In Spain, cutting urban trees looks like national sport. These Swiss have just demonstrated that it is a mistake

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There is only a handful of things that we know for sure about cities and one of them is that trees are key. And it is that the exposure to green spaces (and there the trees enter) “is associated with lower risks of mortality.” It’s simple, it’s clear, it’s easy. And, despite this, we do not take note. Wait, wait a moment … how? Yes and There are many reasons To do this: trees filter air pollutants, provide shadow, reduce ambient temperature in warm climates and encourage people to spend more time outdoors. They are a cheap and relatively accessible system to improve people’s lives. But, as I say, when planting trees it is not so easy. Among other things because there is no space. How can we plant trees to get maximum benefit? That is what They wondered Zurich ETH researchers. To do this, they examined high resolution data of the tree canopy to determine “the structure of the green tree spaces” within a radius of 500 meters of the place of residence of a person. Of six million people, actually. AND They crossed this urban data with health and mortality information from the neighborhoods of Europe and Asia that analyzed. What have you discovered? That both tree coverage in residential areas and its spatial distribution correlates with mortality. In fact, researchers They realized that the risk of mortality was “significantly lower in people living in neighborhoods with extensive, adjacent and well -interconnected areas of tree cups than in people who live in areas with less areas of fragmented tree glasses and with complex geometries.” This seems true, in addition, if we discount other factors such as age, wealth, gender or educational level. It is true that the data are correlational and, therefore, do not allow to establish causal relationships; But the effect size makes all this very promising. But, indeed, research is needed. “We are still in the early stages of this research”, The researchers explained. There are very basic things that are there to be clear: for example, they did not study the influence of specific factors such as pre -existing diseases, smoking or the same use of these green spaces. A big problem … that affects us especially. And I say it affects Spain because Bad care that urban trees are given here is An endemic problem. The causes are diverse, yes; But they can be summarized in three: few media, mismanagement and isolated political decisions of any current technical knowledge. Swiss study is just the last drop of a glass to be overflowing. Because we have known for a long time that trees help reduce atmospheric pollutants and mitigate the Urban heat island effect; But we don’t take it seriously. Nor do we go to take it. Image | Vladimir Kudinov In Xataka | A centenary ficus has just died in Seville after two years of agony. It is the best example of how Spain is killing its urban trees

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