How do athletes break records even though the sport has been going on for decades. How do individual humans break those records so often even though we’re said to be getting weaker than our ancestors. Is it just pure willpower or what? In some sports it could be chalked off to rule changes and stuff but there are a lot of sports without any rule changes and rely purely on the athlete. Are they juicing and the juices keep getting better? Is a new record just seen as a goal that only needs to be broken and not annihilated?
In: Biology
Better training is available at younger ages, so that elite athletes can improve their performance over a longer period of time. There are also many more people with access to elite sports opportunities, just because the population is larger.
We’ve learned so much about nutrition, athletic training, and sports science over the last two decades. Athletes are bigger, stronger and faster than ever before.
Plus, many kids are being encouraged to turn away from contact sports due to concussion concerns so better athletes are turning to less traditional sports.
Identification of talent and body type and coaching towards a specific discipline has also increased. Not everyones body type is made for every sport, so coaching is tailored for specific people towards certain types of sports early on.
Equipment keeps getting better as well, which I think puts something of an asterisk on the record (or at least it’s something to remember.) Pole vault poles are springier and stronger, running shoes are lighter and are custom built to the runner, swimming suits are hydrodynamic to nearly zero friction….
Something that hasn’t been mentioned.
Those coming later know it’s possible to do something.
Running a 2:05 marathon is unthinkable when the WR is 2:15, but within reach when the WC is 2:07. The mental barrier is one of, if not the most, important.
Aside from all the good points as to why high-end athletes are better now than before, there’s another way to look at it:
“Breaking a record” is one kind of very extreme occurrence, but as years pass, all kinds of extreme occurrences become more likely to occur ***simply because they have more chances to happen***.
In addition to records being broken with more time, you’re also more likely to see a baseball game be decided by a home run ball bouncing off someone’s head or see a football team get a playoff-winning score in the last 13 seconds, etc.
To your point about us being “weaker than our ancestors”: while yes the average person has gotten weaker over the decades due to a more sedentary lifestyle, the quality of training and the age at which that training is available to gifted athletes has vastly improved. So yes the average joe is probably less likely to be physically fit and strong, people who are dedicated to a sport will continue to break records far beyond what was thought possible. It has nothing to do with juicing (and almost nothing to do with rules changes).
More specific training and diet, and cheating with performance enhancers. All of the greatest athletes can afford to cheat. Some of them will even go after you for suggesting it, even while they are cheating. The more money a sport has, the easier it is to cheat. With cheating, premier athletes careers are extended to also break career records. Some cheaters can add a decade to their careers. And we all just accept it because we like to watch our sports.
I’m still convinced the only records that may never be broken are Wayne Gretzky’s career assist record (you’d have to average 98 assists a year in a 20+ year career) and Secretariat’s Belmont Stakes time (The closest since ’73 was a full 2 seconds slower… an eternity in triple crown horse races). Fun fact: Secretariat still holds the fastest times in all 3 triple crown races.
Some sports have adapted the rules to encourage certain outcomes and drive engagement.
Scoring has gone up gradually in the NBA and I’m sure other leagues are seeing different types of statistical shifts whether it’s driven by rule changes or adoption of analytics.
Latest Answers