The Electronic Olympics

by Hal Higdon

Opposed to mechanized sports events, a young photographer and his friend try to foil the computerized Olympic games in which the athletes are programmed.

105 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Hal Higdon is an American writer and runner. He has contributed to Runner's World magazine longer than any other writer. He is the author of 34 books, including the best-selling Marathon: The Ultimate Training Guide. He has worked as a freelance writer since 1959, and has written a variety of subjects including a children's book that was made into an animated feature. He ran eight times in the United States Olympic Trials and won four World Masters Championships. He is one of the founders of the Road Runners Club of America (RRCA).

Reviews

[DW Rowlands · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read this book as a kid, and I really enjoyed it, even if it is rather dated.

The book is set at an unspecified near-future summer Olympics in a fictional European country. The 1968 Mexico City Olympics are repeatedly mentioned as being in the recent past, so it’s probably set some time in the 1970’s. In any case, this year’s Olympics are unusual because a big evil American computer corporation has convinced the IOC to allow them to computerize everything: races are timed by computer, diving events are judged by computer, even the fireworks for the closing ceremony are controlled by computer. The plot primarily revolves around the main character, aSports Illustrated photographer, discovering all the problems that the computerization is causing, and discrediting some of the computer-based judging. And one significant plot point is that orienteering–the national sport of the fictional host country–is a demonstration sport, and isn’t computerized because it would be too hard to wire up a course in the woods and because, as a demonstration sport, it’s controlled by the host country and the corrupt IOC officials who were convinced to let Americans computerize everything couldn’t interfere. The book amused me a lot as a kid. I’ve not read it in years, though, and I’m not actually sure it was very good, but it does make me particularly amused to have competed on a computerized orienteering course.

[Fred D · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book back when I was in grade school, I believe it was around 6th grade or so, but I'm guessing. I'm not really sure. Anyway, it was pretty interesting, though didn't leave much of an impression. Basically, it is the story of the first Olympics that used a supercomputer to judge all of the events. At the end the computer suffers a malfunction, misscoring some events, which ultimately leads the IOC to abandon the use of a supercomputer to score events.

I find it amusing that back in the early '70's the author thought that one single computer would be used to score all events. Technology just hasn't evolved that way. I think it's inevitable that computers will play a larger & larger role in scoring Olympic events, but the idea that one computer would score all of them is a bit quaint. More likely you would have multiple computers networked together scoring each event. No sense in making one do it all.

Also interesting was the evolution of Olympic events. Orienteering was a new event featured in the book, as well as spaceship races. I could see that. Maybe spaceship races will be added a bit later than the author imagines, but I think he's on the right track there. Also in the book a lot of events were made co-ed, which I can see that happening eventually too, at least in some events.