If you were born a mere mortal but are desperate to be an Olympic god, these (often illegal or dangerous!) techno-biological methods might help.
Inject Endurance
If you can't afford the $75,000 egg chamber, injections of erythropoietin (EPO) can improve endurance by boosting your red blood cell count. EPO is a hormone produced naturally in the kidneys, released whenever your body thinks you need more oxygen in your bloodstream. But it's now produced artificially and can be injected to ramp up red blood cell production, meaning more oxygen in your blood and better endurance.
Oh, and it can also kill you. "The blood becomes viscous like thick oil, so people wind up with heart attacks and strokes," NYU Professor of Medicine Gary I. Wadler and former Chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA) Prohibited List and Methods told me.
Source: img.webmd.com
Rig Your Épée (Fencing Sword)
At the 1976 summer Olympics, Soviet fencer Boris Onishchenko tampered with the circuit system on his sword, allowing it to register touches without actually touching his opponent.
Source: farm3.staticflickr.com
Wear A High-Tech Swimsuit
Full-length swimsuits, namely Speedo's LZR Racer, are made of water-repellant, buoyant, drag-resistant fabrics and were banned after a record-shattering 2008 Bejing Olympics. Speedo redesigned the suit to cover less of the body, threw in a cap and some goggles, and is now touting the Fastskin3 Racing System as its fastest (legal) suit yet.
Source: sgvtribune.mycapture.com
Live In A Mini Spaceship/Egg
Hyperbaric chambers enable you to breathe in 100 percent pure oxygen, compared to only 21 percent in a normal room. The Cyclic Variations in Adaptive Conditioning (CVAC) pod (infamously used by Novak Djokovic) simulates the "live high, train low philosophy" by changing the pressure inside the egg in a cyclical fashion.
A 2009 study showed that at various altitudes the CVAC unit increased blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) by about three to six percent, helping to heal injuries faster. SpO2 is a measure of the amount of oxygen in the blood compared to its maximum capacity, and for normal people is usually in the 94 to 98 percent range.
Source: a.abcnews.com