2026 Winter Olympics

This post is related to my work at NoLimit and my experience at the Winter Olympics.

For context NoLimit is a sports tech startup that created shorts that have EMG sensors and IMUs to detect muscle activation + track height and speed. They acquired my app PeakFit and brought me on as a founding engineer in August of 2025 to have me create their software and algorithms for injury detection

A month ahead of the Winter Olympics I was able to sign on 7 athletes to using our tech, which is how we were able to go. Here is what I learned from this absolutely incredible experience.

Security

First of all the Olympic village is COMPLETELY locked down, like I thought we’d be able to just prance right in, but no no no that is not the case at all. Its actually kind of cool how much security there is around the athletes lol

Unless you’re an official Olympic sponsor or apart of the athlete’s federation you will not be getting into the village, and even if you are one of those it will still be difficult for you. But you’re still able to hang out near the village and we met 2 of ours at cafe’s just right outside of it.

Also an interesting fact is that each athlete (at least for the US), is assigned their own agent from homeland security, and that agent will actually follow them around and make sure they’re safe lol. Although I never caught a single glimpse of any of the said agents it’s kind of spooky hearing athletes tell us that they’re around somewhere. Even more interesting, both the opening and closing ceremony had a sniper, although no one could find where, I still think that its nice that they invest so much in ensuring the safety of the athletes.

Now security out of the way lets talk about the athletes.

The Athletes

I think a lot of people forget that these athletes are also human. Of course they still train 6 hours a day and dedicate a large part of their life to their sport, but they still have hobbies and interests outside of their sport. Heck I was literally at dinner with one of them just talking about video games, and another one loved watching motivational edits and doing tricks with a soccer ball. Every single athlete that I got to meet was such a genuinely fun person and it was really inspiring how they were able to do so much.

I think something all of these athletes had in common was how consistent they were, sure they’re extremely busy people, but they still take time to respond to important matters, or pick up calls from people who are important to them. Not a single athlete we met was late. I think that says everything about how they’re able to do so much. They took their own time and other people’s seriously.

Does that mean they weren’t able to have fun or laugh or dance with their friends? No, it just meant that they were making the best of every moment, and I think that we can all learn from that.

The Tech

NoLimit creates shorts with EMG sensors used to capture muscle activation alongside an IMU used for height, acceleration, and rotational speed. This then creates a baseline for the athlete, and when compared against their biometric data from say an Oura or Whoop, we’re able to detect a potential injury before it actually happens.

This works because over 60% (and some doctors argue 90%) of sports injuries are overuse injuries. Meaning they are completely preventable, its just that too often athletes and coaches don’t see the warning signs, or they do and ignore them.

For example a sign that an overuse injury is about to happen is you consistently being fatigued, which worsens your technique which then causes you to rely too much on muscles that you haven’t trained as well. Or your performance like speed or jump height is consistently dropping over a few days. This is your body usually trying to warn you or it literally breaking down, then eventually something gives, and it’s usually something painful.

I’ve had friends who have gotten overuse injuries at the peak of their career. That’s actually what inspired me to build this, I believe that no athlete should have to take months off from something they love when the reason is completely preventable.

Making a Starbucks Ad???

My most incredible side quest yet.

I was just walking Milano with Maxim Naumov, we walk into a Starbucks and suddenly me and my friend are shooting him walking around and taking sips of coffee and the employees are all interacting with him. We made a reel since Starbucks is an official sponsor of Team USA and then boom they reposted it on their story like wtf??

The whole thing was completely spontaneous and the staff were so chill about it (I mean they kinda had to be the guy is an Olympian), and we did it in like an hour and a half, you can check it out here

Houses and Pin Trading

I didn’t know this going into the Olympics, but pin trading is a really big side thing that people do. There are a ton of popups from the Olympic sponsors like Visa, Alibaba, Prosecco, etc., where you can go and get free pins, and if you run into athletes, you can trade with them for their country’s pin, which are way harder to get. It’s actually a really fun use of time just walking around the city, collecting and trading pins.

There are also houses. Each country has its own “house”, usually inside of a hotel or restaurant, where you can go and hang out and watch the games on a giant projector, some houses have unique events like the Brazilian house had a curling setup on the roof so you could play curling. The Slovakian house had a quiz to get a free pin. Some houses you pay to enter and some are free to enter. Others like the Team USA house you need an invite to get into.

I was also surprised to see so many athletes from previous Olympics. When I was at the Team USA house there were soooo many Olympians, I think the oldest one was from 1952!! It was just insane being one of the few people in the room that didn’t compete in the Olympics. But it was extremely inspiring.

What Milano Taught Me

The most important thing I learned was that if you want to make something happen, you need to ask. Just ask.

Closed mouths don’t get fed, and the worst thing someone can say is no. I really wanted to get into The Team USA house so I just asked an athlete if I could get an invite and then boom I got one. I was with a US coach and wanted to meet their students and show them the sports tech, so I just asked. And I got to meet them. I wanted this really cool pin someone had, I went up and asked if they wanted to trade. It’s uncomfortable but there are only upsides, and the upside was that my trip was 10x better than it would have been if I didn’t ask.

Realizing how important it is to ask for things is probably the most valuable thing that I am taking back from this trip… besides the pins haha