Retrospect: innovation in sports technology

After WWII, the memory of conflict and Australian sporting achievements in athletics, tennis and swimming (culminating in success at the 1956Melbourne Olympic Games) were dominant in people’s minds and helped shape Australian national identity as one based on sporting prowess. The Associated Chambers of Manufacturers of Australia had earlier lamented this situation. In the 1952 Made in Australia Exhibition (Exhibition Buildings, Melbourne) catalogue the following sentiment was expressed: 'Great deeds in the realms of war and sport have imbued Australians with a full measure of national pride. We should be no less proud of their industrial history, but unfortunately there are few who appreciate the extent of their achievement in less than 150 years.' Despite these stirring words, it is as a sporting nation that Australians, then and now, mostly identify. Happily, however, there have been several occasions where industrial design and sport have met to mutual advantage…[Introduction]