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You can’t have a discussion about sports technology today without including athletes in that conversation. Their partnerships, investments and endorsements help fuel the space – they have emerged as major stakeholders in the sports tech ecosystem. The Athlete’s Voice series highlights the athletes leading the way and the projects and products they’re putting their influence behind.

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Alistair Brownlee is a two-time Olympic champion triathlete, winning gold in the 2012 and 2016 events. He later competed in half-Ironmans, twice earning silver in the world championships at that distance.

Since announcing his retirement last November, the 37-year-old has grown increasingly immersed in business. He co-founded a nutrition brand, TrueFuels, and has invested in more than 20 startups. Brownlee is an associate partner at Redrice Ventures and a member of the IOC Athletes’ Commission who consults on human performance and emerging technologies. He also leads The Brownlee Foundation, the charitable endeavor he started with his Olympic triathlete brother, Jonny.

On the impact of tech in his career . . .

Some technology happens in, let’s call it, a relatively linear progression. But the example of a technology that hasn’t happened in a linear progression is shoe tech, which is incredible. Of course, there were small innovations here and there in shoes, using slightly different forms of rubber soles. Then, all of a sudden, we see a steep change in innovation, with using the light, thicker foam and inserting the carbon rods that we started seeing probably 2018, 2019 and really exploded in 2020 and ’21.

The real innovation in terms of technology, for me, is training attitudes and approaches, which isn’t as sexy and obvious. I saw technological progressions on every form, in terms of attitudes, in terms of the scientific approach to training, in terms of the equipment we’re using, whether that is shoes or bikes. I started out with a bike that was all made of metal and your gear-changing happened very manually, and I went to electric gears with a power meter on a bike that was mostly carbon fiber.

Technological innovation is across all those different domains. In terms of tech, like hardcore tech — wearables and monitoring and having an impact on training — I started out in a world where [there was] a stopwatch and you might use a heart rate monitor as your primary training monitoring devices. I remember, as a 16-year-old, using a heart rate monitor and starting to use the first GPS watches to now where there’s all kinds of training monitoring devices, whether that’s internal — heart rate monitoring, HRV, muscle oxygenation — to external: power meters, GPS watches and bike computers.

On his business interests . . .

I did a finance master’s at university, and so that business approach always interested me. I always had an attitude that I wanted to invest and build value for the long term because I knew that my athletic career won’t last forever, so that was an important aspect to me. Some of my early sponsorship deals had bits of equity in them. So a business like Boardman Bikes, for example, that was a big sponsor of mine from the early days — part of that was an equity deal.

I also had always been interested in businesses that can be a solution to make people perform better in elite sport but also perform better in terms of living healthier, active lifestyles. Obviously, backing great people to make great companies and great solutions is part of the answer. It’s not the whole answer — government plays a role in that, and charities play a role in that — but also great private businesses play a role in that.

On the impact of AI . . .

AI will affect sport in every different domain, as it’ll have an impact on all our lives in every domain. It will affect how people train. It will affect how people integrate data, use data, interact with data, how they’ll use all that information to prescribe their training going forwards, how it will help people understand more and deeper insights in recovery.

In terms of how we engage fans, obviously, there’s going to be massive changes there — engaging fans on a really personal level to watch events and interact with athletes and teams. Whether that’s camera angles or following a particular player or athlete or learning more about them as the events are happening, or learning more about how you can engage in whatever that sport might be, whether it’s badminton or football or triathlon or whatever.

The IOC are looking at it from an organization point of view as well. How can you use that technology to be more efficient? Use energy better, help people get in and out of stadia better.

On co-founding TrueFuels . . .

I was always being fascinated by maximizing human performance, and my [approach to] nutrition probably came out of me developing my own fuels in the last few years to race on was a challenge. I’ve got a feeling that the majority of people for whom a marathon or an Ironman or whatever endurance challenge goes wrong, nutrition is the primary reason for that.

I had this idea of, how do you create a brand that is about helping the consumer to understand what they need, to make sure that nutrition isn’t the limiting factor for the event, whatever the event that they’re doing? The combination of that is product and education and community.

On his role with Redrice . . .

I invested on my own, joined local angel networks and got known to invest in sports businesses. Over the last few years, I only really invested alongside various VC funds, one of those was Redrice. I got to know the team at Redrice over the last couple of years. They’re a consumer VC, but my thesis is that everything is going to become more wellness-based over the next five or 10 years, especially the consumer market. And we see all kinds of evidence of that increasing spend on wellness, especially in the younger demographic who are spending proportionally more on wellness than older people. Health and wellness is becoming a luxury signal.

I started talking about a role with them as they work towards investing more in this space, and we came up with the idea of a sports collective that I’m leading and Andy Murray is a part of it.

Air Force Explosive Ordnance Disposal, or EOD, technicians will take a new gender- and age-neutral fitness test starting next month, the service has announced, with a medicine ball toss, a powerlift and a dynamic drill with 80-lbs of weight known as the Gruseter.

To qualify for their jobs, EOD troops undergo one of the most rigorous training pipelines in the Air Force, but have long been held only to Air Force-wide physical fitness standards, which are less difficult and account for gender. The new, more difficult Explosive Ordnance Disposal Occupationally Specific Physical Fitness Assessment, or EOD OSPFA, will demand the same passing scores for men and women.

Women make up about 3% of the Air Force EOD career field, said Air Force spokesperson Laurel Falls.

“The assessment was developed using performance data from both EOD and non-EOD airmen,” Falls told Task & Purpose in an email. “The four exercises comprising the EOD OSPFA directly correlate to these (Physical Training SSSS) and an individual’s ability to perform them. All EOD Airmen, regardless of sex and age, will be assessed using the same standards.”

All enlisted airmen and officers in the EOD career field will take the new annual test that involves four events instead of the standard Air Force Physical Fitness Test. The Air Force has been working on the new fitness test for EOD techs since 2015.

The new fitness test for EOD airmen will include four events: A 1,000-meter row; 20-pound medicine ball toss, trap bar lift, and Gruseter drop-roll-lift-run maneuver,  in which airmen wear a 30-pound vest, roll over while carrying a 50-pound sandbag, and then run 15 meters with the sandbag a total of five times.

A July 11 Air Force news release announced that the EOD community had been added to the list of combat arms fields that require “special sex- and age-neutral fitness standards.” As of Monday, the Air Force was working to fix an error with the link to the news release. However, Task & Purpose confirmed with the Air Force that the guidance still stands.

“Since 2015, EOD leadership has been developing a new fitness standard recognizing the career field’s uniquely demanding physical requirements,” Falls said. “EOD technicians require sustained endurance to handle long hours in physically and mentally taxing conditions.”

Over the last year, airmen in the EOD community took an unofficial version of the fitness test, the news release says. After July 31, results will become part of their official record. 

“While EOD operations have always met overall combat arms standards and placed inherently high physical demands on EOD technicians — a fact underscored by the Global War on Terror — EOD airmen were historically held to the same physical fitness standards as the rest of the Air Force,” Falls said. “This meant that even EOD airmen who passed the Air Force Physical Fitness Assessment (PFA) sometimes struggled with the most physically demanding EOD missions.”

As for the new test, the specific events are designed to simulate tasks EOD technicians will likely engage in while involved in active military operations. One core task of EOD techs is to neutralize improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, while wearing bomb disposal suits, which are bulky, hot and can weigh about 50 pounds.

The test’s 1,000-meter row is intended to gauge cardiovascular fitness.

The medicine ball toss is meant to evaluate functional strength for EOD techs who could face tasks like climbing ladders and evacuating casualties.

For the trap bar lift, EOD airmen will have to do five repetitions ranging from 150 to 360 pounds.

The Gruseter drop-roll-lift-run maneuver is meant to simulate small unit operations and moving quickly while carrying heavy equipment in high-stress situations.

The Defense Department first allowed women to serve in ground combat jobs in 2015, when standards for most gr. Earlier this year, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a March 30 memo ordering the military services to develop “sex neutral” physical standards for service members in jobs that involve directly participating in combat. 

Officers and enlisted troops in the Air Force’s special warfare jobs — Combat Control, Pararescue, Special Reconnaissance, and Tactical Air Control Party — have had gender- and age-neutral standards since 2015, Falls said. “The Special Warfare and EOD communities remain separate, Falls said.

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Monday, July 14, 2025 | Posted by Liz Ruggiero

Following a US Equestrian-led summit of veterinary professionals earlier this year, the Federation has released a white paper summarizing the group’s recommendations on best practices in sport horse medicine.

In March, 28 veterinarians gathered at the World Equestrian Center in Ocala, Fla., to review:

• Examinations and preventative health measures
• Injury prevention and management
• Fitness to compete
• Wearable technology/biometrics
• Science-based treatments vs. anecdotal evidence-based treatments, including joint injections, vitamins and minerals, nutrition, homeopathy, and shockwave
• Treatment modalities
• Research priorities

Today, US Equestrian has released a white paper which memorializes the conversation and input from all the veterinarians who attended the gathering. The paper is available here.

“Following the recent USEF Veterinary Summit on Sport Horses, we needed to draft a comprehensive white paper that captures the key discussions, scientific findings, and consensus recommendations from the summit,” said co-author Dr. Tracy Turner, president of the American Association of Equine Practitioners. “This document will serve as a resource for advancing equine athlete health and welfare, informing evidence-based policy, and guiding best practices within the sport horse community. We care deeply about these horses we use for sport.

Level of Care

“Every horse, regardless of discipline, merits the level of care we have outlined in the white paper. The well-being of the horse should be the guiding principle in all that we do.”

The authors believe the care and safety of horses is a collective responsibility of veterinarians, trainers, and owners, with veterinarians prioritizing the horse’s health over competitive pressures. The white paper defines fitness to compete, which is understood to refer to a horse’s overall readiness, health status, and freedom from doping.

Veterinarians should work with owners to regularly and thoroughly review horses’ wellness status, using advanced diagnostic tools and biometric systems where appropriate to assess a horse’s fitness to compete.

Overtraining and excessive competition can harm horses’ health, though the appropriate amount of work can vary significantly between horses and situations.

The paper emphasizes the importance of muscle recovery, reiterating that rest is the most effective tool to aid in this area. Other areas of focus include therapeutic treatments, homeopathic treatments, supplements, and vitamins and minerals.

Tools

Veterinarians remind readers that appropriate, individualized and diagnostic-based use of tools like orthobiologics and shockwave can be beneficial when used within Federation guidelines. Readers should also be aware that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration does not regulate homeopathic products or dietary supplements, and there is limited scientific evidence to support the use of many of these treatments.

The paper’s authors encourage future research in the following areas:

• Competition numbers: how frequently horses are entered in shows and how often they compete, compared alongside demographics such as age, competitive success, and injury history. They also suggest researching longevity at various levels of competition compared with frequency of competition
• Appropriate nutrition options to limit the need for post-competition “muscle recovery” treatments
• Evaluation of potential “recovery” biomarkers to assess appropriate treatments to aid in recovery
• Evaluation of wearable technology to evaluate fitness and preparation (already being done in eventing), as well as impacts of pollution, heat, and shipping
• Detection of shockwave biomarkers

If you are interested in supporting these research efforts, please consider making a donation to the Chromatic Fund, a collaborative initiative of the American Association of Equine Practitioners, US Equestrian (USEF), KC Branscomb (breeder of the horse Chromatic), and The Foundation for The Horse. The Chromatic Fund will fund innovative research and education initiatives designed to improve the health and welfare of performance sport horses. For more information go to www.usef.org/donate, and select “The Chromatic Fund” in the dropdown menu.

By CORA LEWIS

NEW YORK (AP) — A “click-to-cancel” rule, which would have made it easier for consumers to end unwanted subscriptions, has been blocked by a federal appeals court days before it was set to go into effect. But there are ways to end those subscriptions and memberships, even if they take some work.

The rule would also have required companies to disclose when free trials and promotional offers would end and let customers cancel recurring subscriptions as easily as they started them. But even without the new federal guidance, here are some ways to stay on top of subscription and membership fees.

Use calendar reminders and regularly review your bills

Experts at the Consumer Federation of America recommend setting calendar reminders for whenever a free trial period ends, to alert yourself to cancel promotional offers before the real recurring costs kick in. The auto-enrollment process, in which the company does not remind the consumer via email that a trial is about to end and higher monthly payments will begin, was also at the heart of the FTC’s rule.

“No subscription business model should be structured to profit from a gauntlet-style cancellation process,” said Erin Witte, Director of Consumer Protection for the Consumer Federation of America, in a statement on the click-to-cancel rule.

Regularly reviewing your credit card and debit card bills can also help you keep track of any recurring charges — including price increases you may have missed or that you didn’t anticipate when trying out a new membership or subscription.

Know the terms and conditions of a given subscription

“Companies make it easy for consumers to click to sign up and easy for the companies to automatically withdraw funds from consumers’ accounts,” said Shennan Kavanagh, Director of Litigation at the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) in a statement on the FTC’s click-to-cancel rule. “People should not (have to) spend months trying to cancel unwanted subscriptions.”

Given the FTC’s vacated rule, though, companies may still legally require that customers cancel memberships or subscriptions by phone, even as they permit signing up, enrolling, and paying bills online. Consumer advocates say this places an extra burden of time and energy on the consumer to stop an unwanted recurring fee, but sometimes knowing the terms of the subscription and getting on the phone is worth the trouble.

There are some services that unenroll you

Apps like Rocket Money and services like Trim, which is accessed through a browser, can keep track of your recurring monthly fees and subscriptions, for free — or for a fee — and can help you catch new ones or even unsubscribe from some services.

For parents, especially, a service like Trim could help inform them that a child has started a new subscription, game or membership before the fees recur. And Rocket Money will actively work to end unwanted subscriptions for you, for a monthly price. If the company can’t successfully end or cancel the subscription or membership, it will give the customer the information needed to do so. Trim also provides this service, in its premium form, for an additional fee.

Resist deals when canceling

The FTC is currently moving forward with preparations for a trial involving Amazon’s Prime program, which accuses the retailer of enrolling consumers in its Prime program without their consent and making it difficult to cancel subscriptions.

Often, when a consumer tries to cancel a subscription for something like Prime, which offers free delivery and streaming video, the company will offer a month or more of the subscription at a promotional rate — half off, or at other, better-seeming values, to entice a customer to stay. Staying strong in the face of what may appear to be a good deal can help you stop recurring monthly fees before you forget to cancel them again.

Agreeing to yet another trial or promotional rate, which is another on-ramp to auto-enrollment, just continues the cycle, according to consumer advocates.

What would the FTC’s rule have done?

The FTC’s rule would have required businesses to obtain a customer’s consent before charging for memberships, auto-renewals and programs linked to free trials. The businesses would have also had to disclose when free trials and promotional offers would end.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit said this week that the FTC made a procedural error by failing to come up with a preliminary regulatory analysis, which is required for rules whose annual impact on the U.S. economy is more than $100 million.

The FTC said that it did not have to come up with a preliminary regulatory analysis because it initially determined that the rule’s impact on the national economy would be less than $100 million. An administrative law judge decided that the economic impact would be more than the $100 million threshold, and the court decided to vacate the rule.

Former President Joe Biden’s administration had included the FTC’s proposal as part of its “Time is Money” initiative, which aimed to crack down on consumer-related hassles.

“The Associated Press receives support from Charles Schwab Foundation for educational and explanatory reporting to improve financial literacy. The independent foundation is separate from Charles Schwab and Co. Inc. The AP is solely responsible for its journalism.”

Originally Published: July 14, 2025 at 12:16 PM EDT

HANFORD, Calif. (KFSN) — New technology and artificial intelligence might be the answer to improved addiction recovery.

OpiAid is a first-of-its-kind device that helps care providers determine the best approach for a patient.

“It monitors everything during the day, during the evening, monitors their sleep,” said Dino Miliotis, the national spokesperson and top investor of OpiAid.

The device is a watch. Every five minutes it collects data and sends it straight to the care team through this dashboard.

It picks up on symptoms associated with addiction recovery, which are often difficult for patients to put into words themselves.

“We’re able to look at and distinguish between anxiety, depression and withdrawal. It can actually measure the level of withdrawal,” said Miliotis.

Miliotis is in recovery himself. He says OpiAid can improve the way addiction is treated.

“Still in the recovery community, the gold standard is still something we’ve followed for the last 40 years, it’s time to change,” said Miliotis.

New Perceptions North, a treatment center in Hanford founded by Flindt Andersen, was the first to start using OpiAid.

“People are looking for answers, they’re looking for solutions. And although this is not a fix-all to somebody’s addiction, it is an enormous tool in getting people the help they need in real time,” said Andersen.

Both men say they hope to see OpiAid help millions of people in recovery and are proud of its ties to the Central Valley.

For news updates, follow Nic Garcia on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The Pittsburgh region’s assets will be on display for President Trump and the leaders of the country’s largest energy and technology companies on Tuesday. 

Pennsylvania U.S. Senator Dave McCormick, organizer of the inaugural Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit, is set to announce $70 billion in new investments in the state.  

One project is set to target Aliquippa, which was once the steelmaking center of the Ohio Valley until it fell on hard times with the closing of the mill. But Aliquippa is looking at a rebirth, with the possible transformation of that site to power the artificial intelligence economy. 

“That thing’s been sitting empty for close to 50 years of my life,” Aliquippa Mayor Dwan Walker said. 

Walker remembers his steelworker father walking out of the mill for the last time and sitting on the porch crying the day it closed. Today, the mayor hopes that a technological revolution can bring his city back. 

“Being that we were the center of steel, now we can be the center of AI,” Walker said. “I don’t think, I know it can happen. I know in this day and age, 2025, Aliquippa can be a new tech hub.”

Artificial intelligence requires massive amounts of energy and computing capacity, and a local partnership headed by real estate developer Chuck Betters hopes to transform the 89-acre site of the old mill into a massive, multi-billion dollar data processing center, creating thousands of construction jobs, hundreds of permanent ones and generating tens of millions of dollars in tax revenue. 

“Large job creation, large tax base, and the comeback of Beaver County from the steel mill days,” Betters said. 

At Tuesday’s summit, the Pittsburgh region will be on display for the heads of the country’s largest tech companies, showcasing both the technological innovations being developed here as well as the massive energy resources available to power them. 

Data centers will help spawn companies like Pittsburgh’s Gecko Robotics, which recently became a unicorn — a company worth more than $1 billion. Founder Jake Loosararian will demonstrate at the summit his AI-powered climbing robots and ask those tech leaders to invest here and help Pittsburgh take the next step. 

“We have the biggest leaders in the world in AI and energy coming to this city,” Loosararian said. “We need to see investment from those companies into this region — continue to do so. You’ll start to see an ecosystem of companies like Gecko that begin to emerge.”

With energy in natural gas and nuclear, empty industrial sites ready for data center development, and a culture of innovation, leaders say the Pittsburgh region is uniquely positioned to be a world leader in AI. 

Walker believes that it can bring back Aliquippa’s Franklin Avenue. 

“More businesses downtown, more strip malls, more access to revenue, that dollar flip two or three times in this community instead of leaving it,” Walker said. 

If and when the site of the mill is developed, it will begin to merge the region’s technological know-how with its vast energy resources, creating a new AI economy that leaders say will benefit everyone.