The Israel based Hype Foundation, will be hosting a sports technology competition this summer, culminating during the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Their hope is to bring the best sports technology innovations from around the globe to giants of the industry, in order to improve the sporting world today and in the future.
After the success of their first HYPE EXPO last year in Milan, the Hype Foundation has turned their focus solely to innovations in sports wearables, broadcasting technology, and apps. They are looking to help enhance the sporting experience for athletes, coaches, and fans around the world, by providing this platform for exposure.
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The Hype Global Sport Innovation Competition – Rio 2016 features big names from the sporting, technology, and investment world as sponsors, judges, and partners: Saucony, Ernst & Young, Olympic Committee of Israel as well as executives from Nike, Under Armour and the Golden State Warriors. The competition will feature a large group of around sixty sports technology startups and companies who have been selected to showcase their new sports based innovations to panels of elite judges. The huge field will be dwindled down to the winners of eight regional semi-finals. Those winners will then compete for the 100,000 Euro grand prize in Rio de Janeiro, during the 2016 Olympics.
This nontraditional sporting competition could help determine the outcomes of more traditional events for years to come, as technologies and innovations that come from Hype will look to push athletic performance to new heights. Today almost every aspect of human life is impacted by technology and the sporting world is fighting to stay at the forefront of these innovations. The Hype Foundation’s goal is a lofty one, but it is also a very exciting one:“bringing together the best and brightest entrepreneurs from all across the globe, focused on building innovative products & technologies that disrupt the world of sports as we know it.”
Some of the start-ups that have already been chosen to compete this year have been covered here in the past: Antelope and Lumenus. With great sports innovators like these already a part of the field, the Hype Foundation and the panel of judges is sure to have a tough task ahead of them in order to chose the finalists, much less a winner.
The deadline to apply has been extended to May 15th due to the high demand of applicants. The Hype Foundation will help all those that earn a spot in the competition gain much needed media coverage and exposure. The competition will allow participants the chance to pitch their products to industry leaders, members of the Olympic Committee, and Venture Capital firms from around the world. All of those accepted to the field will be provided with training and other classes to help them grow, no matter how far they make it in the competition.
Gili Lustig, of the Olympic Committee of Israel, is very excited about the their partnership with Hype Foundation and sees this competition as one that will be very beneficial to sporting community as a whole. “Sports and innovation are going hand in hand and, most appropriately, the focus is on technology and health. When talking about human ability the sky is the limit, thanks to technological improvements.”
Competition helps to bring out the best in teams and athletes, and the Hype Foundation is hoping to bring the best out of sports technology innovators. Their competition will garner a lot of attention from companies and innovators who have the ability and the means to help advance the sports world greatly through technology.
With the Rio Olympics as the backdrop for the finals, the Hype Global Sport Innovation Competition has the potential to bring technology to the forefront of the sporting world. In doing so they can help propel an already burgeoning industry forward, to continue enhancing the experience of athletes and fans a like.