voice-over: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. this week, we explore the tech powering the olympic games. alasdair examines the engineering behind an elite—level swimming suit. we talk adaptive bikes with a former champion mountain biker.

the main, main thing, is the articulation. another rock comes, so you canjust move it and it adjusts by itself. and then there's laura, who's doing... ..i don't know what. i meet the team gb athlete doing real and virtual gymnastics. i'm going to do a somersault in this new technology. paris — art, music, fashion, sport. the olympic and paralympic games are returning to this beautiful city for a third time. 1900, 192a, and now 202a. a century on, things have certainly changed —

and we're notjust talking about the outfits. every time there's an olympic games, it's a chance for not just sport, but sport tech to take to the world stage. and we're always learning about new ways to monitor how exercise and sport affects the human body. and what's trialled here at elite level will almost certainly trickle down to the rest of us ordinaries at some point. so first, let's hit the pool — where alasdair keene is checking out something very snug indeed. i knew it from a very young age — that's where i want to be. the olympics is just amazing to go to as a whole, but obviously, it's taken me about four years to do so, so i'm so happy to finally have

made that progression. getting to this point takes determination, lots of training, and the best technology. there's a piece of equipment that all swimmers have that's tightly regulated, and designers are constantly trying to improve — their swimsuits. on the face of it, some costumes haven't really changed much over the years. but at the elite level, these are highly engineered bits of tech costing hundreds of pounds. so typically, in olympic cycles is how we work. and we will have a revolution of a suit technology at an olympic games, something which is hopefully ground—breaking and moves the goalposts a little bit higher. but how far designers can push the innovation is dictated

by the sport's governing body. they limit what materials can be used, or how and where seams might be placed. but that doesn't stop companies pushing the boundaries, and there are a handful competing to produce the best suits for this elite level. please step up. athletes will try out several different ones to decide what they want to race in. and today, honey osrin is trying the latest suit from arena. it includes a new innovation in material, designed to give the swimmer compression to help them be more streamlined in the water, but with flexibility to make it easier to put on. so if you look at this suit, you'll see there's two different textures of fabric. they both have the tpu hyperforce fabric in them — but one is smooth, and one has got channels in it. we know from the research, we know where water needs to be channelled, because vortexes, vortices are created because of the form of the body.

so we need to get the water away as soon as we can from those areas. and that's why we have these channels in certain parts of the suit. how does it feel? yeah, so...usually takes — so with the suits, arena suits that i've tried on before, they take longer — i would say, like, with the new suit, it takes about ten minutes, but this one took two minutes to get on. how important is the compression to you? yeah, really important. so, i find that the more compressive it is, i feel more buoyant in the water. the best way for honey to try out this suit is in the water, and we can use cameras to see how it's performing. honey is wearing the costume for the first time, swimming up and down. what can you see by using this analysis about the costume? so, as you can see around the suit here, there's minimal kind of bubbles created,

or air pockets. so that's because the suit�*s compressing the body into a more streamlined position and allowing the water to flow more easily across the surface of honey's body. so if she was wearing just a bog—standard off—the—shelf suit, we would expect a lot more bubbles? yeah, so the fabric could absorb more water. erm, the fabric wouldn't compress as much as what the racing suits do, so you'd end up with more bubbles that are created around the body as she moves through the water. and if the fabric was absorbing too much water... yeah, that pulls you down. ..it�*d pull her down. your hips start to go lower, so as you're going through a race, you'd fatigue more. so that only makes it more difficult for you to maintain the speed and technique and actually move through the water fast at the back end of the race, especially like the 200 backstroke that honey swims, the main event. but there's only so much a coach's eye can see. the real decider is how it feels in the water. hello! hello. how does it feel? yeah, really good.

so, like i was saying before, i think i got the suit on in about two minutes — and usually it takes me about ten minutes with a new suit. so i thought, how is it going to feel in the water? but as soon as i got in, it sort of all compressed, and again, ifelt really, really buoyant. so that's really important to me. how many tests of a suit will you do before you actually decide? yeah, i'll probably want to do, like, one ortwo, erm, one or two run—throughs. so i'll do something called, like, stand—up swims where... so, i do 200 back, so i'll come in, put the suit on again, erm, and just swim the race how i normally do just in a training environment, and see how that feels. well, good luck in the olympics, and we should let you keep training. thank you so much. so, which suit will honey pick in the end? we'll have to wait until race day to find out. spencer: didn't see alasdair's trunks, i notice.

anyway... paris is such an iconic city. and the olympics are notjust an opportunity to revitalise a host nation's infrastructure, but to showcase its beautiful heritage, too. this is pont alexandre iii, widely regarded as the most ornate and extravagant bridge spanning the seine. you'll be seeing a lot of this bridge during the games, because it's involved in several events. the marathon swimming will go under it, and the road cycling will go over it. mind you, while the time trial event finishes at the bridge, spare a thought for the cycling road racers for whom this will be a distant memory by the time they've cycled through paris, down through the chevreuse valley, and then all the way up to a final climb on the butte montmartre.

and then there's the mountain biking. it's been an olympic sport since 1996, and this year will take place on elancourt hill — the highest point in the paris region. however, the sport has yet to appear at the paralympics. but ben derico's been to meet the bikers who want to change that. ben: this is competitive mountain bike racing, a sport where riders hurl themselves off massive jumps, careen through narrow tree—lined trails, and fly downhill at eye—watering speeds. so, i started competing when i was like 12, 11 years old. i used to ride downhill. this is gustavo ortiz, a competitive mountain biker and the two—time national champion of his native chile. i was pan american champion, national champion multiple times, and ifinished 20th in a world cup. it was my best result. but, while training in 2017, he had a tragic accident.

i crashed in whistler, and ifinished paralysed from my chest down. did you think you would be able to cycle again? no, it never came to my mind. h ea rt b eats un coeur. un etat d'esprit. although mountain biking will be an official sport at this year's olympic games, it's not yet been made an official sport in the paralympic games. that's partially because the bikes needed to race simply haven't existed. many traditional handcycles are built to be ridden on the road and feature wide wheelbases. occasionally, they even place riders kneeling forward. this position puts their centre of gravity higher — something that would make sharp turns difficult on a loose dirt mountain bike trail. but a canadian company think they've developed a solution. i broke my back in 1996 snowboarding, and prior to that, i loved mountain biking. i loved snowboarding and climbing, i was, like, a kid who loved the outdoors in canada.

and very early on in my injury, i recognised that i was going to be 100% reliant on technology. so, a machinist by trade, christian began building experimental adaptive mountain bikes at home. the problem was always that i would tip. i would tip over, or, like, i would go fast down a hill and corner and, you know, tip to the outside of the corner. for years and years, he tinkered with different designs, but nothing worked. so he focused his energy instead on a custom cross—country ski chair that could shift and pivot over undulating snow. it was while skiing that a light bulb went off. if he just flipped the ski set—up over, he'd have a system that would allow the wheels to articulate and absorb shocks independently. the main, main thing is the articulation. so, with that, you can, like, go through skinny sections, you can crawl into rocks, and then another rock comes, so you canjust move it, and it adjusts by itself.

the frame can also absorb big drops, allowing riders to maintain speed through technical sections the same way they would on a standard mountain bike. aside from its articulating frame, these bikes have a few other unique features that make them especially useful for mountain bikers. unlike most handcycles, these bikes operate with two wheels in the front and one in the back. combined with an upright seating position closer to the ground, riders here can easily shift and pitch their weight to avoid tipping over on sharp turns. the handcycles also come with pedal—assist motors, and there are even fully motorised models as well. currently, each bike is custom—built for the rider, and ranges in price anywhere from $13,000-20,000. bowhead says their bikes are already in 30 countries, and more bikes in more places could help the sport offer meaningful competition and worldwide reach — two requirements to become an official paralympic game.

even still, christian says these bikes are helping bring a new—found acceptance for adaptive mountain bike riders. we're a part of cycling now, which is huge for us internally at bowhead, but it's way bigger for our customer. like, our acceptance is their acceptance. while it has helped with his racing, gustavo says this technology has helped him get back and enjoy riding his bike again. i feel that i am discovering, like, yeah, another kind of riding, because i was so used to just racing, like racing, racing, racing, i'm preparing for racing. but now i am, like, just enjoying the process of riding and going for long rides and, yeah, like, learning how to enjoy being in those places. while we're certain a bowhead won't be at this year's paralympics in paris, they mightjust be kicking up a cloud of dust in los angeles in 2028.

and has become the world's most valuable company after its share price reached an all—time high. the value passed $3.34 trillion, fuelled by a surging demand for its chips that power artificial intelligence. they are in the business that should have a substantial growth, what my concern would be is how long the growth can be sustained. donald is removing ai power would drive through is a restaurant in the us after customers reported mistakes in the orders. the trial system that uses voice recognition to process orders. it has not been entirely reliable with botched requests ranging from ice cream to hundreds of dollars worth of chicken nuggets. nintendo has announced a surprise release of the new game the legend of

zelda echoes of wisdom. it is the first—ever standalone title with friends zelda herself as a playable character. the goal and brain of a 250 million year old fossil has been seen for the first time thanks to micro ct scans carried our edinburgh university. a 3d representation will provide researchers with more detail its behaviours and the evolution of similar species. in many olympic sports, it's clear to see who's won — the first across the line, the one who jumps the furthest. the results are hard to argue.- results are hard to argue. some sorts results are hard to argue. some sports can _ results are hard to argue. some sports can be — results are hard to argue. some sports can be more _ results are hard to argue. some sports can be more subjective. l sports can be more subjective. judges watch performances and decide in a split second the scores. that is one of the areas where this is olympics is using ai assistance.

the perfect ten awarded to a 14—year—old romanian athlete in 1976. she became the first jemison olympic history to be awarded 10.0. the scoring display couldn't cope — which is why it says "1.00" in this picture. judges went on to score nadia six more perfect tens — that's because she didn't make errors like missteps, bent knees, and falling — all of which deduct points. nowadays, ai complements thejudging process, and computer vision can recognise when a gymnast�*s moves are worthy of a podium place. right now, the rules have changed since the perfect ten. the score right now, it's a combination between the execution and the bonus points, which you can get a14,14.7,15.

so, the only ten is in execution. nobody has scored yet ten in execution, because it's really, really ha rd. all this data is then gathered, processed, and we can provide dedicated graphics to fans watching these incredible races on tv. the capturing time, the processing time and then, the visualisation of this data on screen is taking less than a tenth of a second. so it has to be extremely fast in order to be able to appreciate the athlete's performance. this year, swimming, diving, tennis, and athletics are some of the sports using ai systems to help with judging. but technology, already the official timekeeper, will capture moments of an athlete's performance that you would not be able to see with your bare naked eye. how has it been, introducing this sort of technology to the olympic community? it's a journey, and it's, first and foremost, teamwork. so we obviously want to make sure that whatever

we introduced has been thoroughly tested. so we'd bring it to local championships, now televised to a national championship, eventually televised to a continental championship or world cup, world championship, and then to the olympics. visitors to the games will be able to try out this ai—powered lab. it calculates sporting ability through a series of athletic drills. time to put it to the test. it's great for talent id, it's great to develop talent, but it is also fun. and i think people forget that with al a little bit sometimes. we can have fun with it and actually, just knowing, hey, you're suited to this sport or 70% matched to this sport, we might find out something about you with a sport that you never knew, you've never played it before. and i'll talk you through just a few things as we go around. 0k. and actually, we'll get someone over... you want to do a couple of tests as well? absolutely. excellent, good. probably most people would have some trepidation, but i'm excited — and that could be really misguided.

i'm really excited. two, one, and go! while i'm pushing myself to my physical limit, my movement and agility are analysed. the stats are almost instantaneous, giving human coaches detailed reports on where their budding olympians need help. three, two, one... good. ..and well done. now you're feeling warm, right? they chuckle that was actually really good fun. eight out of ten. wow! good job. that's cool! so, we're finished with... we'll get you sat down now, we'll finish with some cognitive, yes? yes, that's a great idea. good, all right. wow. ok, i have some skills. there are cognitive drills too — these were my favourite. two fingers ready only, and then, tap... 0k. so, that's. .. that's it, tap, tap, tap, go, fast, fast! oh, like this? that's it. 0k. that's it. i am a concert pianist, so i'm probably cheating a bit. well, there you go. that's good data.

wow. exploded! 0k. that's actually really strenuous. i know it looks like i'm just jabbing at a screen, but it's, er, i go into full—focus mode, like, more than when i'm playing tetris. all your data has now come in in real time onto your report. anything eight, nine, ten is elite performer. anything maybe that's a bit more of a two, maybe not so much, right? so, cognitive, really, really high in two of the three, a bit lower in one of them. reaction�*s really good. agility was about average, and then, a bit lower on the jump height. brilliant — can'tjump, can react. that's a good summary. they laugh andjump! oh, good, good. i really wanted to try the tasks again and improve my score. and it's certainly a great way to incentivise training, because there's immediate progress reports. apparently, i should try table tennis.

max whitlock is britain's greatest gymnast. he's won multiple titles, including three world championship golds and six olympic medals — three of those were also gold. but this will be his last time competing at the games. he's retiring after paris, so fans may want to watch his every move. the olympics, of course, provides great excitement all over the world. but, despite the fact that athletes move fast, they can't be everywhere all at once. so maybe this is a solution. 29 cameras make up this volumetric studio, which will have more than one use for athletes. all those cameras are then fed into a capture pc that runs on intel processing power. we can capture human performances, interactions, singing, dancing,

whatever, in full 4d. so the result is a 360—degree video that we can use to insert in other 360—degree or virtual environments. the end result is a digital version of the person which can be beamed into tv studios around the world during broadcast interviews. i'm max whitlock, team gb gymnast and six—time olympic medallist, and i'll do a somersault in this new technology. using a tracked camera, we can synchronise the virtual environment and the athlete doing a backflip with the interviewer in real time, so it seems like they're actually together. any athlete would call out and massively welcome new technologies that will enhance the viewing experience, spectator experience, to see sport done in different ways. i think it's... i think it's obviously very, very clever, with new ways to move forward to show sport in different ways. i think that's amazing.

so this is a completely authentic recreation of the actual human form. we don't add anything, we don't take anything away. it's the clothing that they're wearing, it's their personality, it's the words that are coming out of their mouth. so it's a true, genuine capture ofjust that person. today, in this new technology... and here we have it — the smartphone version of an ar athlete, which sports fans can access byjust scanning a qr code. there we go. what was the turning point where it felt like it was fit for purpose? it took a lot of r&d to get to a point where a human actually looked like a human. you can't mess up the way a human looks, right? you know, our human perception is very astute, and so, we can't, you know, if someone's eyes are off a little bit, you know, we recognise that immediately. and so, in the reconstruction process in 3d, we had to get it perfect. and to be able to do this live is quite something. that's right, a lot of ai and machine learning have gone

into the process to be able to reconstruct this in real time, and actually live—stream this data to a point where you could be anywhere in the world, interviewing an athlete in paris, and have a conversation with them such that the latency is so low that it's like, you know, you would be, you know, next to them. my turn now! no problem. well, yes, that's me — somewhat less athletic than max, but at least the virtual version can keep going. and that's it from us from paris. hope you've enjoyed our tour of the tech of the olympics. thanks for watching, and we will see you soon.

hello there. much of central, southern, and eastern england yet again saw another warm and very humid day. but as we move through the weekend, certainly after saturday, it'll be fresher for all, with pleasant conditions in the south. but there will be rain at times, particularly across northern and western areas, thanks to atlantic low pressure systems. so, we start saturday off with this weather front that's been crossing the country, taking the cloud and any showers with it and the warm air. so, into saturday afternoon, it'll be much fresher across the south and east. a bright day for many with sunshine and blustery showers — these mainly across scotland and northern ireland, where it will be quite windy. mid—to—high—teens here, but much fresher across the south — 21—24 celsius with lower humidity. that takes us then into saturday night, which will be a cooler, fresher one for many. cloud building out west as the next weather front starts to approach scotland and northern ireland. it'll be a fresher night to come — 8—12 celsius across the south. now, this ridge of high pressure will build in for sunday — that will bring fine weather

for england and wales. next low pressure system will start to push into scotland and northern ireland through the day, the winds picking up here, the cloud building, outbreaks of rain pushing into northern ireland and western scotland. but for eastern scotland, much of england and wales will see variable clouds, some good sunny spells — best of the sunshine towards the southeast corner, and it will feel very pleasant, with 23—24 celsius here with lower humidity, high teens further north with the wind and the rain. we tap into some warmth and humidity again into monday — this moving off france into much of the midlands, southern and eastern england. so here, a warm and humid, rather sunny day — further north and west, very different, windy, cloudy outbreaks are pretty heavy and persistent rain for northern ireland, southern and western scotland. could give rise to some localised flooding in places, but a warmer day to come even further north — we could be up to the mid—to—high—205 again across the southeast. that weather front eventually starts to push across the country on tuesday, eventually reaching the east and southeast with a few showers as it weakens and moves off into the north sea.

and then, it introduces fresher air to much of the country once again. a bright day to come for northern and western areas with some sunshine — vast improvement to how monday is looking. 19—24 celsius from northwest to southeast. as we move through the new week, it looks like much of the north and west of the country will see the wind and rain at times — whereas, further south and east you are, tending to stay warmer, drier, and sunnier.

live from washington, this is bbc news. the us to deploy additional warships and fighterjets to the middle east amid fears of escalation over the killing of hamas political chief ismail haniyeh. eight people have been arrested and three police officers taken to hospital after rioting in sunderland in the north east of england. we're not giving up on that. us presidentjoe biden says he'll press moscow to release another american jailed in russia after a historic prisoner swap. hello i'm rajini vaidyanathan. the pentagon says it's stepping up america's military presence in the middle east, deploying additional warships and fighter jets as regional tension grows. an aircraft carrier strike group led by the uss

abraham lincoln is being sent to the region.