by Virtual Reality has been around since the 1950s, but due to the lagging technology back then , it died out. However, Virtual Reality is increasing in popularity again as the technology is finally there to support it.
I recorded the NEWMACS Swimming and Diving Championships with the Ricoh Theta S show below. It is the best in the market for consumers at less than 300$ and is extremely user-friendly. It uses two wide-lens fisheye cameras and stitches the two images together automatically. The resolution is not as good as the professional method of attaching 12 go pros to a mount and stitching them together. However the gopro method costs thousands of dollars and the software to stitch the images is also expensive and takes hours of blood sweat and tears to do. Furthermore the stitching with the gopro is never perfect and you will notice them in the VR.
Here is the link for some of the photos I took:
https://theta360.com/users/67447?utf8=%E2%9C%93&select=image
and the video is below
The one problem with the Ricoh Theta S is that although the resolution is good when taking still pictures, it is lowered when recording a video. The resolution for video is technically 1080p, but because of the much much larger FOV it is not nearly as crisp. However, many companies such as Samsung, Nikon, and Sphericam are releasing their 360 cameras that can record 4k quality in the spring (of 2016)!
If you purchase a VR headset such as the google Cardboard, you can watch this video in VR! There is no doubt in my mind that in a decade or so everyone will be watching all sporting events this way. Parents will no longer have to pay for expensive tickets and hotels to watch their kids swim and will be able to do so in the comforts of their own home, while still feeling present at the meet.