U.S. Olympic Skate Team suffers concurrency problems in test--guess who helped?

You can't make this stuff up.

The U.S. Olympic skate team under-performed. See if the following story is familiar.

WHEN US Speedskating commissioned a new hi-tech skinsuit that would revolutionise the sport at the Winter Olympics, the vision was gold, silver and bronze.

The result was a total debacle.

And...

Kevin Haley, senior vice president of innovation for sportswear producer Under Armour, laid out a timeline for The Associated Press that began in 2011 with the development of a new suit that was supposed to give the Americans a decided technological edge.

The company worked with Lockheed Martin to handle some of the testing, a partnership that added a bit of intrigue to the process. The aerospace and defence giant analysed the suits using a CGI-like procedure in which sensors are attached to the body, producing what Haley called “an unbelievable amount of data.’’ From there, Under Armour began wind-testing variations of the new suit using six different-sized mannequins.

Understandably, the athletes were excited to see what would come of so many bright minds trying to make them a suit that would provide less resistance, enabling them to go faster than ever.

And...

It was late; test results were unclear and when the skaters used it, there was no credible improvement. In fact one part of the design added drag.

On Thursday, when Heather Richardson and Brittany Bowe competed in the women’s 1000m, an event they had dominated all season, more desperate measures were taken. The vent on the back of Richardson’s suit was covered up. Again, there was no significant improvement, as Richardson finished seventh and Bowe eighth.

With no competition at the oval on Friday, the Americans decided enough was enough.

They received permission from the International Skating Union to go back to the Under Armour suit they used before the Mach 39.

Conclusion:

“That’s marketing. People wanted to make their product stand out,’’ US coach Matt Kooreman said. “And when you don’t live up to that expectation, you get it thrown back at you pretty harshly.’’

The debacle was complete.