The Technologies in Sport: Performance, Bodies and Ethics symposium features seminars and workshops by leading sports academics on technologies in sports science and coaching.
About 100 people attended the opening keynote presentation by University of Otago biomedical ethics professor and neurosurgeon Grant Gillett yesterday, "Cyborgs and the essence of sport".
Sport was fundamentally meant to celebrate human excellence, Prof Gillett said.
"It is easy to emphasise the objective characteristics involved - stronger, higher, faster - forgetting that these are human excellences.
"Competition focusing on the result, rather than the means of achieving it, exaggerate this tendency."
Prof Gillett referred to South African double amputee sprinter Oscar "Blade Runner" Pistorius, who has achieved Olympic qualifying times with the aid of carbon fibre transibial artificial limbs.
"Is running on six foot-long [1.8m] blades, giving yourself a springy, long step, in the spirit of the sport?"
Rules of competition in sport were meant to "preserve the humanity of sport" and prevent it being eclipsed by technology, Prof Gillett said.
When enhancements remediated a defect we were prepared to acknowledge their value, but when they created an unfair advantage over others it disturbed us.
"We accept, and even welcome, enhancement of natural abilities in officials, but direct advantaging of competitors is quite another thing.
"Excellence in human function involves a harmony of lively forces," Prof Gillet said.
Other international academics addressing the symposium this week include Dr Gregor Wolbring, of Canada, on the use of science and technology products in sport, Prof Cathy Craig, of Scotland, on virtual reality technology in sport, Prof Andrew Pipe, of Canada, on drug use in sport, and Dr Michael Gard, of Australia, on the arguments for and against using technology in elite sport.
The Technologies in Sport: Performance, Bodies and Ethics symposium continues today and tomorrow.
A public lecture with a panel of invited speakers, chaired by Associate Prof David Gerrard, will be held at 5.30pm today in the St David Lecture Theatre.
