Dr John-Paul Clarke, professor of aerospace engineering and engineering mechanics at the University of Texas, says the future of track and field will be intertwined with the use of artificial intelligence (AI).
Clarke, who graduated from Calabar High School, said for the sustainable future of track and field, it is important for the sport to welcome the use of AI, particularly in its officiating role.
The engineer was the guest speaker at last Thursday’s Howard Aris Memorial Lecture.
He explained that the sport has continually evolved over the years, and track and field as we know it now is completely unrecognisable from where it was a century ago.
He pointed to the change in time keeping at the Olympic Games as a strong example of the sport’s evolution.
Track and field has moved away from hand-operated stopwatches at the 1896 Games to advanced technology, which incorporates high-speed photo-finish cameras and infra-red sensors at the 2024 Games.
“The simple truth is that athletics has evolved,” Clark said. “This is what timing looked like in 1896 at the first modern Olympic Games. Longines had a contract at the Olympics, they lost the next one, but they were there for the first Olympic Games, and it was a stopwatch.
“By 1912, we were still using stopwatches, but we now had some partial automatic timing and they actually had a picture at the finish line, telling us what the places are,” he continued.
“By 1932, Omega, who had won the contract, basically said forget about the timekeepers, we’ll have one technician running basically 30 stopwatches, all at the same time, synchronised. And then by 1948, we had our first photo-finish technology; and then, we’ve been building on that since 1948.”
Clarke said it is impossible to halt or deny human innovation, and with the advancement in AI technology, it will inevitably play a role in how track and field is officiated.
He explained that he, along with several of his students, have worked on creating a number of AI software which were to be used for officiating athletics event.
The first of their software is called TrackStar, which incorporates drone cameras and AI technology to autonomously detect lane infringement during a race.
The second software, called TrackStart, uses iPhone cameras to create a false-start detection system.
The third of their AI software, called JumpStart, incorporates lasers for use as a foul-detection system for long and triple jump events.
Clarke said innovation like these are the future of track and field, and will greatly reduce the sport’s operational costs.
“From the participant’s perspective, it’s a very inexpensive sport; but if you look at it from the infrastructure’s perspective, it’s not so cheap,” Clarke said.
“Because you need a track, and that will set you back at a minimum US$2 million, right? It’s a lot of money; and then you’ll need a lot of specialised equipment, and that will set you back another million,” he continued.
“The fact of the matter is, it’s very expensive from an infrastructure perspective. It’s also expensive from a managerial perspective, and it’s also an expensive sport from an official perspective.”
Clarke, however, insisted that the use of AI should be relegated to simply a supporting role, used only to assist officials rather than completely replace them.
He said while AI can produce quick and accurate recording and results, it is important for officials to review the software and ensure the correct decision is made according to the laws of the sport.
“You want it to be a supporting function,” he said. “Automation and AI should always be a supporting function, or limited to the things where you have guarantees that they will do the things that you intended.”
