World’s leading fitness equipment manufacturer is official supplier to Olympics
On the occasion of their 40th anniversary, Middle East Health speaks to Nerio Alessandri, the founder of Technogym, about the company’s world-leading fitness equipment and their relationship with the Olympics. Technogym is world leader in the Fitness and Wellness solutions sector and has equipped 80,000 wellness centres and more than 500,000 homes around the world. It is estimated that approximately 50 million people use Technogym products every day.
Middle East Health: Technogym is world renown for developing and manufacturing some of the world’s most advanced fitness equipment and technology which is used by leading athletes around the world. Can you elaborate?
Nerio Alessandri: Technogym has been the brand of reference of the Olympic Games since 2000. The forthcoming Paris 2024 Olympics will be the 9th experience of Technogym as official supplier of the Games after Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, Turin 2006, Beijing 2008, London 2012, Rio 2016, PyeongChang 2018 and Tokyo 2020. That’s why around the world, prestigious teams and sports champions train with Technogym. In the world of football, the company is the official fitness equipment supplier of Juventus, Inter Milan and Paris St. Germain, among others. Additionally, Technogym has been working alongside the Ferrari and McLaren Formula 1 teams for many years.
Middle East Health: How does your equipment cater to the diverse range of sports disciplines practiced by elite athletes, from endurance sports to strength-based activities?
Nerio Alessandri: Starting with science and our experience, and thanks to the most innovative digital technologies, we are able to build a tailor-made workout for each athlete based on his/her personal goals and needs. These workouts can be designed down to the smallest detail to ensure maximum results. We call this Precision Training: a workout precisely tailored to each individual – athlete, amateur or beginner – and accessible, thanks to the Technogym Eco-system, at any place and time: at home, in the gym or outdoors.
Middle East Health: What feedback have you received from sports professionals regarding the effectiveness of your equipment in improving their strength, agility, and overall athletic performance?
Nerio Alessandri: The Olympics for us is like Formula 1 for the car industry. We follow the most important champions and competitions, and the research and experience made in the professional field helps us improve our products for everybody. For example, starting from our experience with elite runners and triathletes we developed Technogym Run, our new treadmill to train athletic performance at home with a unique running surface that adapts to the runner’s stride; the same applies to Biostrength, our new AI-based strength-training range fitted with specific advanced training protocols.
Middle East Health: How does your company stay ahead of the evolving needs and trends in the sports community to continually innovate and improve what your equipment can do?
Nerio Alessandri: “When it works, it’s obsolete”: this is our motto. This means that, in order to always stay ahead, when a product or a technology is at its top, it’s time to change…waiting until it starts declining would be too late to change. Innovation has always been the engine that drives Technogym’s growth. I started up Technogym in my home garage as a mechanical company, then we introduced electronics, then software, then digital and cloud-based technology, and today, media content and AI, to fully personalize people’s training experiences in fitness, sport and health.
Middle East Health: Technogym celebrates it 40th anniversary this year. Congratulations! As we are a health-focused magazine – can you elaborate on how your fitness equipment promotes overall health and well-being beyond simply enhancing athletic performance?
Nerio Alessandri: Today, health is more than ever the number one priority for people. There is an increased awareness of the benefit of physical exercise. People are more informed, but also at an institutional level, governments and local authorities are understanding that investing in health and disease prevention is a great tool to reduce public healthcare costs that are likely to become unsustainable in the future as the population ages. When it comes to health, being able to prescribe precise exercise protocols to treat specific conditions and diseases is fundamental. Technogym has a strategic advantage in the health field thanks to its unique digital Ecosystem that allows professionals to prescribe precise exercises or training programmes based on the needs of each user and at the same time the user can keep track of their movement and improvement.
Middle East Health: Technogym is the official and exclusive fitness equipment partner for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games – the ninth time it has been an Olympic Games partner. What specific role does your equipment play in supporting the diverse training needs of athletes from various countries and sports disciplines as they prepare for the Olympic Games?
In fact, Technogym’s commitment to the Olympic Games goes far beyond the supply of equipment and technology. Our association with the Olympics has become a powerful communication platform through which we can leverage sports to achieve our ultimate mission: to involve the global population in physical activity.
Nerio Alessandri: Technogym has been appointed Official Supplier to the Paris 2024 Olympics for the ninth time for three reasons:
- Thanks to its global footprint the Technogym brand is known by athletes around the world. This enables Olympic athletes to train during the Olympics with equipment that they already know very well, ensuring them a high level of performance and results.
- Our products are the most innovative and safe in the market, which makes this the perfect solution for a such a huge and important sports event.
- With 40 years of history, Technogym has become the brand of reference in the sport and fitness fields. With such a strong legacy, it can be relied upon to deliver the best training experience to athletic champions and people around the world.
Middle East Health: Are there any innovative initiatives in fitness equipment technology that have been introduced as part of your collaboration with the Olympic Games to enhance the training environments for athletes?
Nerio Alessandri: There are many examples. Kinesis is one. This is our unique, patented solution to train strength, balance and flexibility thanks to a free cable system, which was born from the idea of allowing people to train with total freedom of movement. This enables a range of exercises from simple exercises to the simulation of specific athletic gestures. Another example is the Skill range – our athletic performance line for both professional and amateur athletes that has been designed for athletes based upon the needs and feedback of athletes.
Middle East Health: How does your partnership with the Olympic Games align with your company’s mission and values, particularly in promoting health, fitness, and athletic excellence on a global scale?
Nerio Alessandri: Technogym is a Wellness company. Its mission is to help people to live better and longer lives through physical activity, healthy lifestyle, and positive mental attitude. At the same time, the Olympic Games are committed to creating a healthy sporting culture for everyone. Now more than ever this is something central in our lives. This close relationship, spanning almost two decades, is the result of closely matching values. In fact, Technogym’s commitment to the Olympic Games goes far beyond the supply of equipment and technology. Our association with the Olympics has become a powerful communication platform through which we can leverage sports to achieve our ultimate mission: to involve the global population in physical activity.
