2014 Sochi Lack of Suit Testing
Article Summary:
The United States speed-skating team performed poorly in the Sochi Olympics. According to Yahoo Sports, the new suits impaired the skaters’ speed. These suits, designed by Under Armour and named “Mach 39,” were revealed to have never been tested in competition. The reasoning for not testing the news suits was because the United States wanted to keep the suit secret for fear that other nations would copy the technology. As a result, the suits were finished only six weeks before the opening ceremony. The company continued to tout the features of the Mach 39, despite complaints from the skaters that the suits felt uncomfortably tight and made breathing difficult. Meanwhile, the designer of the Dutch speedskating team’s suits tried the Mach 39 suit and noted that it did not make the user faster. In fact, the designer believed that a vent installed in the back of the suit slowed down performance.
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Swiss Immigration Reforms, Risky
The voters of Switzerland just passed a reform to limit the immigration of citizens of the European Union into the country. This nullifies a freedom of movement agreement between Switzerland and the EU. While Switzerland is not a member of the EU, they have adopted many of the union’s policy. Furthermore, the two have significant bilateral trade and over half of Swiss’ exports go to the EU. The EU has yet to decide on a response to the termination of this agreement. There is the distinct possibility that this could lead to some level of Swiss exclusion from the markets of the European Union as this is only one piece of many bilateral agreements that took years to develop between Switzerland and the EU. If exclusion occurs, it would harm the Swiss’ Economy.
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