Compare the world record timings in the 100 meters men’s sprint; 1912, Don Lippincott of USA, set the world record with a 10.6 seconds sprint; in 2008, Usain Bolt of Jamaica holds the world record for his timing of 9.69 seconds set at the Beijing Olympics. In the men’s 800 meters event; Mel Sheppard of USA set the world record timing of 112.8 seconds in 1908; in 2008 the world record timing is 101.11 seconds set by Wilson Kipketer of Denmark in 1997. This progression to faster timings is true in all Olympic level athletics events.
Are the better timings an indication of athletes getting better or is it an indication of technology making them seem stronger and faster. The genetic make up of the human race could not have changed drastically in a hundred years. So that leaves training, nutrition and equipment which could have resulted in the improvements.
Training for 100 m sprint may seem simple, just practice sprinting every day. Well 100 years ago maybe that is all one had to do but over the years training programs have gotten a lot more complex. Today a sprinter plans and orchestrates each and every stride in her run. All the muscle and limb movements are coordinated to achieve maximum speed and power. Today’s technology is geared to help athletes do this better. The effect of every muscle is mapped out. Weight training programs pinpoint the muscles needed for a given type of race and enhance their volume, power and speed individually. In Olympic sprinters, 80 percent of their muscle volume comprises fast twitch muscle fibers, while those who excel in marathons tend to have 80 percent slow twitch fibers. Today training programs exist to condition and enhance one type of muscle fiber or even convert one type of muscle fiber to the other. The effects of training on muscle metabolism are also well known and various personalized nutritional supplements are given to the top athletes.
Sports equipment has undoubtedly been another factor in enhancing performance. For an elite athlete even the properties of her footwear are personalized for maximum performance. Athletes for example wear shoes with very stiff soles. By using stiff soles an athlete is able to generate energy more efficiently in the ankle joint. This is simple physics, the stiff sole acts as a longer lever about the ankle joint and produces more force. The synthetic Tartan track used today, first used in at the 1968 Mexico Olympics, has been shown to aid in faster running.
Perhaps the natural abilities of the athletes of the past were at par with those today. What separates them is the way those natural abilities are nurtured to enable them to go stronger and faster.
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There is also the issue of amateur versus professional. Today's professionals earn appearance fees in excess of $100K just for showing up at track meets. This allows them to dedicate 100% of their time to training and competing. In the old days the athletes were strictly amateurs meaning they had to work a job then come home and train (their second unpaid job).
Wish i earned that just for showing up somewhere, except work.
Interesting that you should point out the fact about amateurs and professionals. Being a professional with assured earnings definitely allows athletes to concentrate on training. So I guess you mean that athletes are training more (rather than training better) and that has resulted in the better timings.
Very interesting question. I've wondered myself if the natural abilities aren't essentially similar and the change is more from new training techniques, nutritional programs, etc. I've also wondered how many of these record breakers have been on artificial performance enhancing substances that they won't be caught on, haven't yet been caught on or can't be caught on because they aren't particularly detectable, or something they look for. Good post. Thanks for leaving a commment on our site too. Hope you got a laugh.
~JD
the question which needs to be asked is: had the athletes in 1908 had the same advantages in equipment, etc. as today's athletes - how would they compare? If the 1908 runners been wearing today's top of the line shoes, is there a chance that today's records would be broken? I guess we'll never know.
This is a good post=) I´ve thought about this for some time and.. I do believe that people haven´t really changed THAT much and.. society has a bigger impact now on athletes than back then, so.. it should make a difference and it does, so all´s correct :)
take care
With respect to amateur versus professional - more and better. Professional athletes move to where the best coaches are. So you see Canadian athletes training in the United States.
Another point is that there is significant money and rewards for winning now as opposed to back then. Thus you see more athletes, meaning that statistically there are more chances of doing better. And the obvious point about anabolic steroids. More money increases the incentive to cheat. In 1988 when Ben Johnson was caught cheating after smashing the world record for the 100m, there was a committee set up to see what went wrong. It was pointed out that 80% of the runners in that race were on illegal drugs but the testing could not identify the drug so they did not fail the testing. An we see it now with the majority of world class sprinters are being exposed for cheating.
My 08.08.08 blogpost is a related post. It is a combo of superior training methods, equipments and identification(genetic factors). As per some reports the design of the pool and the swim suit helped swimmers break many records this time. Also new drugs (or traditional ones) could be a possibility too. I was not surprised when i read Marion Jones story.
Check my latest post about Cricket (for inclusion in Olympics). May be of interest to you.
I put it down to better training methods and more of an awareness of what to do and not to do to get that advantage (legally).
Is it terrible to think that purely for research's sake, it would be interesting to see just how fast steroid/drug induced athletes could go?
And with china being the dominator in the beijing olympic, can we really say that they're more advanced technologically in the field or is it just their determintation that makes them what they are today.
natural abilities helped by artificial matters. Shoes, tracks, equipment in general, everything is there to break records. I also think nutrition and doping are for much in record breaking nowadays.
This is really a interesting post!
It is amazing to know that the human body can be trained as a machine. Kinda scary though.
Keep up the great work, and thank you for your comment on my blog.
Maybe it is evolution as well plus the quality of food and technology make everything more accurate than before. Now athletes can measure their fat level and stuffs like those whic in the earlier days, these things were no so popular!
You told it all actually! Indeed these are the factors.. but maybe humans evolved a little.. Just look at our sizes.. we sem to better than before, right?
"Are the better timings an indication of athletes getting better or is it an indication of technology making them seem stronger and faster. The genetic make up of the human race could not have changed drastically in a hundred years. So that leaves training, nutrition and equipment which could have resulted in the improvements."
every years sport competition conduct will apear new record. an i think brain is more faster then any body apart that we have
Day by day new records are set, new Athlets are coming in the world with Extream power and strength, May be change in environment is one of the reason !!
i always wanted to be athlete but ended up to be a web developer :(
great blog you have here Ivs!
i'd say it definitely is a combination of advancements in technique as well as technological advances that have helped athletes excell in their respecitve sports.
Will Usain Bolt run sub 9.5 in London 2012? Or will he run a sub 43 400m instead? Will Flo Jo be vindicated, or demonised? Will we still care 100 years from now? If we are still around? Great thought-provoking stuff ... thanks.
The reason an athletes performance is better today than 100 years ago is due to the huge population increase. Also athletes back then could not make a living being an athlete. Athletes that break records today get endorsments and more fame and have more incentive to compete. Also performance enhancing drugs didn't exist until the 1970's.
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