Analytical attractions and the techno-continuum: Conceptualising data obsessions and consequences in elite sport

ABSTRACT

The proliferation of sports science and technological innovation within performance settings has precipitated the generation of increasing volumes of data to aid athletes. Copious data production has also perpetuated the privileging of scientific information, and a ‘thirst’ for ‘more data’ as an unproblematic ‘truth’. Of significance is not merely the use of technology for the production of data-for-data's sake, or the utility of data for a greater cause (e.g. the good of the team), but the quest for personalised data for individual athletes to be analysed, and reflected upon ad nauseam. Furthering scholarship on disciplining bodies, we argue that increased technological consumption, and the related excessive quantification of athletes’ bodies via data production, adds further insecurity into performance sports work. Finally, attention is given to the cultural step-change new techno-dispositions may now present.

KEYWORDS:

• Sport technology
• data analytics
• techno-criticism
• organisational politics

ORCID

Geoffery Z. Kohe http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6683-6669