Jake Yono

JY Journalism

11/24/25

How Competition Fuels Innovation in The World Of Sports

In sports competition in nature, it's something that has always been there. It is simply the act of trying to beat an opponent or team with everything one has at their skill set and disposal to win. It’s truly what sports are; without it, athletes do not reach their full potential, records cannot be broken, and the game becomes practice. In all sports when athletes compete amongst one another and the results have gotten established and the sport has become more popular, athletes who don’t win prestigious titles half to find ways to win, and the art of practicing “more” or “harder” is not necessarily the answer as sometimes doing the same few things will leave you to a proportionate or on a linear path with your competition. My argument is that when an athlete begins to innovate, their performance can increase at various amounts according to how effective the innovations are, and in this article, I will be showcasing the history of innovation in various sports and how previously “lesser known” athletes have risen to the top, and innovation going on in sports currently, one might not have realized.

When sports began athletes had no clue what they were doing and it wasn't their fault. My first portrayal of this is in the National Basketball Association began in the late 1940s all the players played with Converse shoes which in today's world are walking shoes or lounging shoes that people do not even consider working out in let alone playing basketball as they won’t allow one to run fast or jump as high that's required for the game today and if they were to play to the physical standards of the game in these shoes they are to likely get injured as the speeds and heights are simply too high and fast. The same thing can be said with the Air Jordan 1s which have the same storyline previously mentioned. With this in mind, Nike and other brands began to sign with players and test out prototypes to see what they were most comfortable playing in and shoes such as Allen Iverson, Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, and Steph Curry began to launch their revolutionary shoes with various brands which are way safer for on-court play and correlate with agility, acceleration and speed needed on the court. Another innovation refers to a major product used for hydration recovery and nutrition, invented by the University of Florida Gators Football team in 1965 Gatorade. This substantially improved dehydration in the hot sun during grueling football workouts for the Gators, it was just a mix for their team and they won the prestigious Orange Bowl the season they added it to their regimen but the point is that they saw they were underperforming and needed something to get them up to their potential. Furthermore in the early 70s leagues such as the NFL began to sponsor the company and incorporate it into their action to maximize the potential over 60 tough minutes of football without just water. I also would like to state that the products Sucrose, Glucose, and Sodium Citrate, Monopotassium Phosphate were discovered and known to bring back energy and give your body electrolytes necessary to perform at the highest level but Florida mass produced it and made it in to-go bottles where athletes can keep drinking it without having to make another mix which takes time out of a busy college schedule. The last innovation I will be talking about is in my own athletics career, within my own realm I’ve realized that in long-distance races that are very tactical, I focus on thriving rather than surviving. In further context, this means I’m focusing on relaxing but still pushing hard and focusing on the other competitors and slowing them down, and what they're going to do. Rather than just getting to finish the race and see where I end up. This has opened me up to new doors in the sport such as going out at paces faster than I usually would and knowing where to be at the end of the races rather than just trying to finish, It’s safe to say that I’ve innovated and have substantially become a better runner and I didn’t half to make a supplement or a revolutionary shoe to innovate I just had to change my strategery and thought process to do so.

Concluding this article I would like to say that if you're not innovating you can still get better but you must innovate to get the most out of training and performance and reflect on your past competition and the linear path will not work out in terms of getting to the top, athletes must look at all the current technology at their disposal and discern all the possible ways of getting better rather than just “perfecting” the same skills every day which I see is a problem for many athletes. Innovating can be new training techniques, coaches, filming yourself to track progress, journaling to catch your thoughts and attempt to improve after the competition, or simply a new way of thinking that opens up your eyes to endless possibilities. In the end, I believe sports are continuing to evolve from Track records being broken, to NFL quarterbacks using virtual reality to see the game before showtime, and the rise of artificial intelligence to depict down stats and tell teams which schemes and plays to run or what to do when the playing object is in a certain position. Sports are moving at a very fast, innovative pace, and this means athletes must adapt and innovate themselves to succeed in this ever-changing world of sports.