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FT Tech Tonic

24 Jun 2026 · 1m

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Coming soon: Rewiring sport

In short

Intro to a Financial Times Tectonic season episode series on how technology may be “rewiring” sport—training, competition, and how fans watch—while questioning whether athletes and sport are better off.

Guests

No guests are named in the provided transcript. Host is Josh Noble, sports editor at the Financial Times.

Key claims

Technology could be a fundamental shift (compared to moving from “Stone Age” to modern times). Past tech waves (e.g., “super suit” in swimming) were later removed, suggesting a possible ceiling.

Notable examples

Swimming “super suit” era; changes in cutting weight, training, and strength/conditioning.

Written by AI. May contain mistakes.

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Transcript

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0:00I'm Josh Noble, sports editor at the Financial Times. And a few months ago, I started thinking about how technology is changing sports. With the World Cup underway, I wanted to understand whether technology is fundamentally transforming sport as we know it. It's like going from the Stone Age, you know, like to modern times. The way we used to cut weight, the way we used to train, the way we used to do strength and conditioning. This is a huge step forward for us. As we rewire how we train, compete and watch sports, what does it all mean for the basic principles of athletic competition?

0:33Josh Noble: We had the super suit era, there was technology in swimming and that technology was taken away. And I felt like we kind of hit a ceiling for many years. In this season of the Financial Times Tectonic podcast, I'll be asking whether advances in technology are leaving athletes, fans and the world of sport itself better off. Listen to Tectonic Rewiring Sports wherever you get your podcasts.

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From the publisher

Are technological advances in sport leaving athletes, fans and competition itself better off? Or are they undermining the spirit of sport? With the World Cup underway, the FT’s sports editor Josh Noble presents a three-part series looking at how tech is transforming sports, from AI-enabled scouting and automated refereeing, to supershoes and performance-enhancing drugs.


This season of Tech Tonic is hosted by Josh Noble and produced by Josh Gabert-Doyon. The senior producer is Edwin Lane and the executive producer is Topher Forhecz. Sound design by Breen Turner and Sam Giovinco. Original music by Metaphor Music. The FT’s head of audio is Flo Phillips.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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