The England team is taking no risks ahead of Euro 2024 as they wear titanium health rings worn by some of the world’s biggest celebrities.
As the team trained for the first Euro 2024 against Serbia on Sunday, the coach Gareth Southgate was spotted using an Oura tracking ring.
Midfielder Conor Gallagher has also been spotted wearing one and defender John Stones once described it as “addictive”.
“We are beaming with pride when we see these elite athletes choose Oura, that’s really cool,” Dororthy Kilroy, the company’s commercial director, told Sky News.
So what is it?
Wearable trackers like the Oura ring monitor aspects of the wearer healthsuch as sleep, heart rate, stress levels and periods of activity.
For most of us, they can remind us to take care of ourselves. For athletes, they can help them reach peak performance.
“The ring is now extremely sophisticated,” said João Bocas, a wearables expert who runs digital health company Salutem.
“It records heart rate, skin temperature variability and resting heart rate. [The new model] offers blood oxygen sensor sensing capabilities, and even offers life insights into daytime stress and resilience.”
So will this give England an advantage?
England are already favorites to win the Euros, but the men’s team has never lifted a trophy in the competition.
They will be looking for anything that will help them take home some silverware.
Dave Thomas works with British Olympic and Paralympic athletes at the UK Sports Institute, where he leads ‘future technology’.
He says the ring could offer England’s sports scientists another perspective on their players’ performance during the tournament.
The OURA app where users can track their health data. Photo: OURA
“In a sports environment you have a lot of different wearables for different contexts,” Thomas told Sky News.
“They give indications as to whether [the athletes] They may be on the verge of a bug or are overloaded.
“That might give the sports scientists or the coaches the indication that we need to back off a little bit and give them a little rest.”
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Thomas highlighted that while he typically works with wearable devices that aren’t commercially available, trackers like the Oura ring can be more convenient for athletes — meaning they actually use them.
“[Commercial trackers] are reliable and there is a low faff factor. Whereas a lot of things, as you increase the level of measurement precision that you want, accuracy and confidence, it creates more problems for the athlete.
“Really, they just want to focus on playing, training and resting.”
The OURA ring. Photo: OURA
Are trackers like this the future?
Health trackers have been around since the 1960s – there was always a dusty pedometer in the kitchen drawer growing up – but recently there’s been a boom in the market.
Celebrities got on board, with Kim Kardashian, Prince Harry and Gwyneth Paltrow wearing Oura rings.
Kim Kardashian. Photo: Reuters
“There’s definitely a ‘fashion technology’ trend, of being seen using the latest gadgets,” says Bocas.
“But I also think COVID-19 has increased our awareness of what’s important [in terms of our health].”
Ms Kilroy, of Oura, agrees. She thinks the pandemic has triggered the growing demand for wearable health technology.
“We all felt really out of control with our health, right? Things were happening and we were running to Google to get answers,” she said.
“So having access to your own data about how your body is doing – I think being able to understand that and be empowered with that data, once you get a taste of that, is actually a very liberating feeling.”
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But, according to Bocas, we won’t be wearing health jewelry for a long time.
“Within five, ten years, the wearables we see today will be obsolete, the bracelets, the rings, the watches,” he said.
“Technology has advanced so much that we have sensors that go on our clothes, our belts, our glasses, our shoes. Even, if I may be a little controversial here, implantable skin sensors where we won’t need to use anything.”
For now, English fans are hoping that the ring on some of the team’s fingers will be enough to make them champions.
This story originally appeared on News.sky.com read the full story
