Google Discover begins showing Athletes in 3D to celebrate the 2020 Tokyo Olympics

Due to the global pandemic, the 2020 Summer Olympics have been delayed until this year. Now that they’re in full swing (Friday, July 23, 2021 – Sunday, August 8, 2021), Google is adding fun little Easter eggs and nods toward the games throughout its products. Now, in Google Discover, you can happen upon ‘Athletes in 3D’ on your phone. This new section promoting various popular athletes who are competing this year allows you to view them in 3D as they perform their signature moves on screen.

Taking that a step further, you can ‘View in your space’ and place them directly in your living room (or on your desk as I did!) The animations and models are super well done, and it’s a joy to get a little bit of Olympic action right at home. What’s nice about these cards, and it’s probably just the web dev geek in me is that the images bleed off of the sides of each one, and sometimes directly into the next card – a trait of Google’s Material Design 2.0

If you weren’t already aware, ‘View in 3D’ has been used for many things over the last year. The feature uses augmented reality, and in addition to these models, you can also view a variety of things that will be popular during the back-to-school season – dinosaurs, in particular. Who doesn’t want a Tyrannosaurus Rex in their living room? (Nobody? Just me? Okay.)

Google’s been pushing this cool tech with AR car showrooms as well so individuals can get a full walkthrough of their purchase before going to see the vehicle in person. Anyways, here is a list of the cards that appeared for me for the Olympic experiments!

Athletes in 3D

• Naomi Osaka’s tennis shots
• Simone Biles doing a triple-double on the floor
• Megan Rapinoe’s free kick
• Dina Asher-Smith racing
• Alexander Massailas parrying
• Caeleb Dressel’s freestyle swim
• P. V. Sindhu’s badminton shots
• Leticia Bufoni skating on a half pipe ramp
• Niklas Kaul hurdling