OlymPicks: Hockey-Helper Robots Top Our List of Highly Anticipated Olympic Things

In OlymPicks, we highlight news, gossip, and developments regarding the buildup to Beijing's 2022 Winter Olympics.

Hockey-Helper Robots May or May Not Be Very Cute

Ever since last year’s news about self-driving cars and the much-anticipated digital RMB, we here at the Beijinger have wondered what other technological sorcery would be unveiled during the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games. Well, we’re currently in the midst of a ten-day test event, and while boring, predictable logistics like crowd control and temperature checks are being put through the wringer, we’re also getting our first look at some of the newest technologies to be rolled out come next year’s Games.

Top of the list: A battalion of robots tested in Wukesong over the weekend, meant to ferry hockey equipment – as well as documents and office supplies – between the training stadium, the arena, and other locations. The machines, dubbed “smart person-following robots,” are outfitted with “laser- and vision-enabled automatic collision avoidance and navigation systems.” While we haven’t seen any photos of these little helpers yet, that’s not stopping us from imagining befuddled androids fumbling and stumbling with too many hockey sticks, paper clips, and Gatorade, which is nothing short of delightful.

In other impressive, albeit decidedly not adorable news, the Wukesong Arena has also received state-of-the-art “bullet-time” cameras that will, in no uncertain terms, revolutionize the way people watch a sporting event from the comfort of their home. With numerous cameras rigged throughout the arena, people tuning in on their devices will be able to use a “free visual angle” system co-developed by the Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, meaning viewers can choose whatever angle suits their fancy at any given time. What’s more, those cameras will be fed into a 5G cloud network that processes the footage into ultra-HD in real-time, resulting in quality, unlike anything couch-based sports enthusiasts have seen before.

Olympian finds inspiration after fishing his cell phone out of a lake

Hoping to avoid the worst of the coronavirus pandemic last year, Olympic curling champion John Shuster decided to spend the majority of his time ice fishing in his hometown of Duluth, Minnesota. However, it was one trip in December that would radically alter his mindset about the Olympic Games. As Shuster explained to World Curling, he was out fishing one afternoon when his new cell phone fell into a part of the frozen lake. Resigned to the fact that it was lost for good, Shuster made his way home.

That evening, as he mulled over the fate of his phone, he was reminded of his team’s performance at the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics, when they bounced back from a 2-4 loss and eventually went on to win gold, the first American team to win gold in curling no less. Bolstered by his own history of overcoming unlikely odds, Shuster returned to the lake the following day and fished his phone out – and much to his surprise, it still worked. Speaking to Curling News, Shuster explained, “That’s kind of where I turned the corner and really decided that I needed to control things I could control with the pandemic and everything going on.” Likewise, speaking to World Curling, he added, “Winning or losing doesn’t matter as much as that feeling of accomplishment of your team just constantly getting better.”

READ: OlymPicks: Iran's Paralympic Winter Athletes Given Cold Shoulder

Images: themanitoban.com, winnipegfreepress.com, minnesotamonthly,com