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6 hours ago
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Obviously, progressions in sports clothing technology must make a small difference to the abilities of an athlete – but how on earth is it physically possible that we continue to break world records, year on year? Are humans really faster or stronger than they were decades ago? Jennifer Michaelson, Newlyn
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Readers reply
I think it’s partly because there is a larger pool of athletes. In the past, competing athletes would have primarily been from western countries. Now, they’re from all over. Sfddes
One reason for better results is 3 billion extra people on Earth just since 1990. The chance of a “special one” in there improves significantly. catchytitled
This is due to the advancements in nutrition and training. If you compare these with 20 years ago, there is a big difference. And added to this is the advances in sports equipment. MartWolves
Several pathways to advance performance have emerged. One is refined training, nutrition and equipment. That is partly enabled through the ability of athletes to turn professional. It allows them to construct their routines every day around improving at the sport; no need to separately earn a living, get an education or deal with other distractions.
Another is higher levels of participation. A wider demographic can try the sport, which improves the chance of seeing some emerge as international-level prospects at an early age. How many Kenyans would have seen a path to earning a living through running a few decades ago? Now, it’s an ambition for a substantial number of young runners, who know it’s a realistic career. leadballoon
It seems that while there remains scope for “marginal gains” in sports (as Dave Brailsford pursued in cycling), records will continue to fall, albeit by smaller and smaller amounts. Improvements in sports science and technology allow you to wring out gains in areas previously unavailable.
Regarding cycling, I recall Mark Cavendish noting with scepticism that, due to advancements in science, monitoring and so on, some teams thought it made more sense to find someone with optimal physiology and teach them the sport from scratch than to identify a good young cyclist and train them to be better. DocRicketts
In a lot of Olympic sports, the competitor doesn’t have to break a world record by much – one-hundredth of a second faster or a centimetre longer will do the job. The pole-vaulter Armand Duplantis (and Sergey Bubka before him) breaks his own world records 1cm at a time, almost as a party piece (and for a big cash bonus). In other events, such as track running or swimming, however, the main priority is to finish ahead of everyone else; if that results in breaking the world record, then all well and good. dfic1999
Interesting that the Enhanced Games held recently in the US produced so few new records [only Kristian Gkolomeev bested an official world record, for the men’s 50m freestyle]. I think because it was more of a marketing exercise to sell more supplements, but “clean” athletes did as well or better than their drug-taking counterparts. Presumably, the “clean” athletes relied more on plain old hard work, consistency and healthily nurtured talent; those seem to be the areas where we continue to improve. fabulouswilsonsister
Data, pure and simple. KiltedKiwiEdin
And money. Thirdhandluke
