As an engineer I’ve always been interested in Olympic events where performance is affected by technology. Like bicycling, air rifles, kayaks, swim suit materials, tennis rackets. Are there publicly available rules for such things? Could a team have the rug pulled out from under them and their equipment if they’re TOO competitive? (ie, NASCAR) 
BTW, a few Olympics ago the US Bobsled Team became competitive with new sleds financed by Jeff Bodine, a NASCAR driver…the BoDyn sled…
PS. And what about radically different sport techniques like the Fosbury Flop?
You can buy the swim suits that they wear in the Olympics, if you’re willing to pay out the wazoo for them. The Speedo LZR jammer, what many of the men wear, goes for around $350. From what I’ve heard they are only supposed to be used a handful of times and then they are no good any more. The women’s suit goes for around $450.
The rules that the swimmers follow are FINA rules and are available online.
I would guess that any new move, the Fosbury Flop, would have been asked about long before they got to the Olympics. Though sometimes new things are tried and the rules changed after the fact. The single dolphin kick after the breaststroke turn is one I can think of off the top of my head. The officials couldn’t see it from above so they couldn’t DQ anyone.
I found this handbook for track and field “implement inspectors”. It provides details of all kids of gear like javelins and throwing hammers, as well as the equipment and procedures to measure them.
I found it by Googling Olympic Javelin Specifications. You can probably find other gear with similar searches.
Moderator Action
Since the Olympics are all about sports, let’s move this to the Game Room.
Moving thread from General Questions to The Game Room.
The Union Cycliste Internationale governs most major international cycling competitions, including the Olympics. They have very detailed and strict rules about bicycle design and construction - wheel size, frame shape, how far back the seat can be from the pedals, etc. Other (national/regional/amateur etc) races usually adopt the same rules for equipment.
Most “road bikes” sold in bike stores are UCI compliant, which is why the bikes used in pro races don’t look very different. Some cyclists push the limits of these rules - Greame Obree, for example, is famous for this. He set a world record in his home-built bike with an unusual riding posture (as you can see in that link - note the handlebar grip position compared to standard drop handlebars). The UCI banned the design after that. Then he adopted the Superman position which also got banned by the UCI.
And of course, if it weren’t for UCI rules, all bicycle records would be held by streamlined recumbent bikes.
I was reading this story about javelins and modifications to them. and it struck me than these changes may result in never-to-be-broken performance records in a number of sports. In the case of the javelin in particular, it was changed because the competitors were beginning to heave it out to the limits of the fields. Rather than making the fields bigger, they’ve changed the javelin’s design so it can’t be thrown as far. And maybe after the most recent change, or the change after that or the one after that, the standing record before the change will simply be impossible to beat and the record will stand forever.
Most sports’ rules are available onlne from the website of the international organization that runs the sport - e.g. IAAF for track & field, FINA for swimming (and water polo), FIFA for soccer, and AIBA for boxing. Keep in mind that a lot of the acronyms are for the French names for the organization.
The only three organizations I can think of off the top of my head that don’t make their sports rules available online for free - at least, the ones I have tried to get - are NFHS (the organization for most high school sports in the USA; selling rulebooks is how it makes most of its money), ASA (American Softball Association), and Little League Baseball (I think it’s because they don’t want too many parents pretty much shoving rulebooks into coaches’/umpires’ faces).
Actually, quite the opposite - once the javelin was changed, the existing world records were erased. And yes, it was changed because they were throwing the old one the length of the field, which became dangerous when there was a race on the track at the same time. Finding larger fields is not an option; if they could get a separate field for the javelin, then they could almost certainly find one for the hammer throw as well (and, in fact, at this year’s USA Track & Field Olympic Trials, one day was set aside for just the hammer throw, so they wouldn’t have to worry about hitting anybody in other events).
If rules were not readily available (“You’re disqualified, but we won’t say why”) or subject to last-minute change (“You were legal in the early rounds, but not in the finals”) the outcry would be extreme.
“Readily available” and “available to the general public” are two different things. There is one organization whose equipment specifications are not available except to its fee-paying members: NASCAR. Also, for a long time, the NFL would not make its rules public. (Even Andy Rooney could not get a copy, even though he worked for CBS, which broadcast NFL games every Sunday during football season.)
Also note that, before the web became worldwide, you had to know (a) where to send for copies of the rules, and (b) how much to pay.
A lot of sporting equipment (e.g. baseball bats, football helmets) has to meet standards set by NOSCAE; those standards are available at the NOSCAE website.
Which has a rather different mission from the IOC.
Ditto.
The basic point it that any semblance of fair competition (without which the Olympics would have no validity) requires a set of rules known both by competitors and members of the public who are expected to show an interest in the competition.