Machine Vision technology aids in Australian Olympic success.

Australia has recently completed a successful Olympic campaign at the Paris 2024 Olympic games, ranking 4th on the medal tally and bringing home 52 medals including 17 gold, 19 silver and 16 bronze. From rigorous diets to long hours, training and gut-wrenching injuries, athletes endure to achieve success in their chosen sport and as a country we marvel at the level of dedication our athletes have, to compete on the global stage.

Apart from their own willpower and dedication, athletes rely on the support of their team to gain an edge and achieve success. There are typically many individuals and organisations that support and contribute: teams, coaches, associations, sports institutes, benefactors and governments. They all help these athletes to achieve success.

Nina Kennedy at the Paris Olympics. Credit: Getty Images

Elite athletes and Paris 2024 competitors Nina Kennedy and Kurtis Marschall both train at the West Australian Institute of Sport pole vault training facility. Both athletes excelled at the Paris 2024 games with Nina Kennedy winning gold in the women’s pole vault after leaping to a staggering 4.90 metres, and Kurtis Marschall finishing 6th in a seasoned well-honed group of pole-vaulters, by clearing the bar at 5.85 metres in the men’s pole vault.

To help Nina and Kurtis in their training, their coaches use a machine vision system with cameras and optics supplied by Adept Turnkey. Multiple cameras positioned around the runway and the pole vault bar give several views of the athlete as they approach and as they vault. All cameras are synchronised so that each instant in time captured can be viewed and analysed from different angles. Videos are analysed using custom-built software to measure movements with high accuracy, giving athletes and coaches empirical data to gauge improvement.

WAIS Movement Specialist Helen Bayne says that she routinely uses the cameras installed at the WAIS pole vault training facility to analyse Kennedy and Marschall’s performances and that she believes the tools and facilities that are in place at WAIS are world leading and cutting-edge.

The cameras and optics used at the pole vault facility were selected by Adept Turnkey to suit several factors including the required working distances, fields of view and resolution as well as being compatible to the recording system being used.

“The cameras in the WAIS pole vault training facility, provide 3 synchronised views of the athlete’s jump. They offer the ability for immediate playback after the attempt for the athletes and coaches to view. We have also partnered with the Australian Institute of Sport to apply a machine learning model to these videos, which detects 3-dimensional joint positions that we use for biomechanical analysis,” Bayne said.

State and Federal governments as well as private benefactors continue to invest in technology to help our athletes to be the best and machine vision and imaging will continue to play a vital role in this.

This is the first article of two that talks about machine vision used to improve athletes’ performances at the Paris 2024 Olympics. The next article will discuss a machine vision system used to help West Australia’s swimmers.