View Full Version : Falling World Records
Here's a bit of conversation that I didn't want to clog up the Olympics thread:
With Olympic records being broken daily, which seems to happen during every Olympics, my question is this: When will it end?
Sure, improvements in technology and a better understanding of sports physiology/mechanics etc will continue to improve performance, but where is the limit?
Surely, these increases cannot endure FOREVER. 20 years ago, Ben Johnson ran the 100m in 9.79. Two nights ago, Bolt ran it (seemingly effortlessly - with all the show boating and chest pounding 15m from the finish) in 9.69. 100 years from now, will they be running it in 9.09? 300 years from now 7.79sec???:lifter
That one event is an example, but it's happening in all sports. My question is this: Where is the HUMAN LIMIT? Given a perfect environment, with perfect training, with perfect execution, where is the limit of what a perfect human specimen can do?
Your thoughts?
EDITED for spelling.
Jack Moroney (RIP)
08-17-2008, 06:03
I am sure that many of us here have participated in sports events that are currently in the Olympic games. Many have been modified over the years, such as the weight events. When I was competing in the AAU weighliftiing matches we had the press in addition to the two other lifts and that dropped out but was a better measure of overall strength than the snatch or clean and jerk because they have as much to do with speed and technique as they do upper body strength. So those records fall because the events changed. The arenas and venues in which these games are played are also better engineered as are items of equipment used in those events.
I think the next page in the game book will be genetic engineering and/or identifing those that have the right genetic mix that will allow additional physiological exploitation. There will be a human limit at some point as to what they body can achieve, but the events will be modified, the venues changed or the equipment re-engineered. When you can measure success down to thousandths of a second, there is a lot of room for continued records breaking.
Of course it is all a matter of perspective. My idea of a record breaking day in the life of geriatric sporting events is not dribbling coffee all over myself as a I walk at my normal record breaking pace from the kitchen to the back porch.
But then, my measure of a successful event in the life of sports today is being able to juggle my coffee cup on the way to the back porch without spilling a drop.:lifter
I'm sure Nike has something costing $140 to help with that very issue. ;)
Oh, and happen to notice the former UVM student who got arrested in China for hanging a "free Tibet" banner near the games??? Sure he wasn't one of your former students, sir??? :eek:
Just kidding. I'll be over here doing push-ups...
Kyobanim
08-17-2008, 06:50
Evolution
I have to believe the swimming is due in part to the new suits being worn. Not to take away from the amazing and gifted talent that those guys have. Especially since Phelps didn't wear a complete top and bottom. He swam the 100m Butterfly in what. 48 seconds? My 50m freestyle is 30 seconds. But I digress, (or as our old supply sgt used to say, "But I digest") records were being broken by the seconds compared to the stat you just gave for the 100m which has dropped .10 in 20 years! That is a pretty small measure that I think can be attributed to nutrition, training advances and the support structure that these guys have. That and the Ipod. I read Friday that a Doc is trying to get Phelps DQ'd for "Doping" He is claiming that listening to his Ipod prior to the events increases his O2 levels and gives him an unfair advantage.
Where's it going to end? I was thinking the same thing. If they change the standard on the swim suits, those records may never fall.
Bolt did make it look effortless. Incredible.
Jack Moroney (RIP)
08-17-2008, 10:58
Oh, and happen to notice the former UVM student who got arrested in China for hanging a "free Tibet" banner near the games??? Sure he wasn't one of your former students, sir??? ..
With but a very few exceptions my former students would think "TeeBet" was a wager on the golf course.:D
Evolution
if these sprinters/athletes were the offsping of decades worth of athletic champions, I 'd say sure - similar to champion blood lines in horse racing. I don't think evolution much covers it, since we're talking less than a hundred years and many of these athletes do not have other world-class athletes in their bloodline.
My question remains the same: given a perfect scenario, what is the limit of human acheivement? we'll hit the physical wall long before evolution catches up with us, I'm sure.
Kyobanim
08-17-2008, 13:30
Evolution is not something that happens in a blood line. It's the environment that affects evolution. Blood lines just provide the basic DNA building blocks.
The environment, training advances, scientific breakthroughs; knowledge. That's what causes evolutionary changes. You know what puts us at the top of the evolutionary chain? Our ability to manipulate our environment. I'm not just talking about the weather.
Point taken Kyo.
So, is there a physical ceiling to what an athlete can accomplish, say in the 100m? What is the fastest time you think a human being could run it in?
There's a time (there has to be) that, given our body construction, is the fastest possible and our efforts to reach that time will get infinately close. what do you think that is? Just out of curiousity.
Kyobanim
08-17-2008, 20:14
IMO, there's going to be a point where the body puts a limit on what it can do, given current technologies in sports medicine. But I wouldn't even venture to hazard a guess as to what that limit will be. I really don't follow anything but martial arts.
I will lay a small bet that the next advance is going to be in training the mind. Not just to win but in how to control what the body is doing. Like learning how to turn on that adrenaline rush in a fight or flight situation. How to oxyginate the muscles for higher performance.
In 500 or 1000 years who knows?
I will lay a small bet that the next advance is going to be in training the mind.
I was thinking about that too. They're already doing it, on a small scale, by doing things like listening to music to get themselves pumped for the event.
Funny that you mentioned martial arts - they've been doing the mind thing for a long time. Wonder why the rest of sports haven't followeed along.
Jack Moroney (RIP)
08-18-2008, 06:00
Funny that you mentioned martial arts - they've been doing the mind thing for a long time. Wonder why the rest of sports haven't followeed along.
But they have. Pep talks have been juicing folks up for years, and not just atheletes. Imams and their ilk in other fanatical religions have stirred their masses to incredible feats not to mention that little jerk with the short mustache who failed as an artist only to succeed as a dictator.
That and the Ipod. I read Friday that a Doc is trying to get Phelps DQ'd for "Doping" He is claiming that listening to his Ipod prior to the events increases his O2 levels and gives him an unfair advantage.
As stated.
not to mention that little jerk with the short mustache who failed as an artist only to succeed as a dictator.
Yanni??? :D
I was referring more to the mental conditioning, not the instant boost of a good ole' Bobby Knight pep talk.
It was amazing though, I had a teacher in high school that had us listen to a speech by Hitler and, although none of us spoke German, they just fired you up. Not condoning any of what was actually said, but the guy sure could speak.