There's absolutely no questioning the fact that Olympic swimming was one of the most exciting events at the London games, but athletes like Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, and Missy Franklin didn't get to be world-class athletes by accident.  They had to train several hours a day for most of the years of their young lives, and when every hundredth of a second counts towards a potential gold medal, getting any sort of legal advantage really does matter.

But people have been swimming competitively for years.  Are there really any new training methods left to be discovered?

There are, and the same motion capture technology we use to test BMW cars is behind one of them.  It helps swimmers in that it can capture the exact movements of several different body parts during an event.  Afterwards, coaches can watch how various joints operate during turns and dolphin kicks and take the pinpoint-accurate data from the BMW motion capture technology to make necessary improvements.

Athletes always make adjustments, but when it comes to swimming, coaches would have to watch tape and make guesses about what was going on.  Now, there's actual geometry to consider, and that's how American swimmers could continue to get a leg-up on their competitors.

BMW dealers in Tampa love this not only because it's always good PR to have a positive partnership with the Olympics, but also because it's really exciting to think about helping someone like Franklin make history at the next summer games in Rio de Janeiro.  Hey, it's the least we could do, right?