Have you ever wondered what are the limits of human body? Sure, this topic appears every time world record is broken. Last time it was popular after Usain Bolt's achievements. There is a feeling that you always can always do something that 0,01sec faster, but where does it stop.
To improve your results, you can use some illegal help like Erythropoietin hormone - used as a performance-enhancing drug - but those are only minor gains (interesting fact is that for average people rebuilding their everyday diet is waaay more effective than this). It always puzzled me, what are the directives of defining drugs/operations as legal or illegal. We can find Erythropoietin in every human body and if someone has bigger amount of this hormone, he is usually they have better endurance than others. Some drugs that used to be illegal now are recommended and inversely. The peak of this situation we could see in Federal Republic of Germany some time ago. Women taking steroids broke many world records, but after years it reflected on their health.
One thing we can say for sure is that no matter how hard you try, you will never be as fast as Usain Bolt or Lance Armstrong. Good gens are probably the most important thing, and this is sad :) Those people have slightly different body construction and this makes them "supernatural". They also become stars of their sport. There is an interesting question connected with sport stars: What if, after many years, one of the ideals is accused of taking illegal drugs. Should it be given to the public?Coming back to technology. How much more can drugs and equipment help us in breaking the limits. Experts says that such records as those on 100m and 200m sprint will last for years, but one day there will be a man who will do it faster.
Some interesting cycling records (notice the dates):
268,831 km/h - Fred Rompelberg 3 X 1995 - speed record on riding behind aerodynamic cover
40,27 km/h - Lance Armstrong 1999 - fastest average speed on Tour de France
78 days, 3 hours i 30 minutes - Nicholas Mark Sanders 17 XII 1994 - 1 X 1997 - fastest around-the-world trip (20 977 km)
132.5 km/h - Sam Whittingham 2008 - flat road, 200m long:
210,4 km/h - Markus Stoeckl 2007 - downhill on 2km road, 45% steep:
And now, for the finish: THE GREATEST RECORD OF ALL:
60,45 km - Christian Adam - riding backwards and playing violin :)
I don't like sport competitions, because I don't see the purpouse of them. Selecting the best one? For what?
ReplyDeleteIt's good to appriciate someones efforts, to reward hard working sportsman. But if someone has just good gens what effort is he or she making? The same is with drugs, and with equipment in disciplines where technology is important. If someone wins because he has the best gens in the whole world maybe we should enter him in the The Guinness Book of Records as the man who has the best gens for, for example, running. If someone wins because he had, for example, the best car, it's no longer the players competition, but the engineers.
Only the situation when winning depends only on competitors hard work (physical and mental) makes me think of sports competitions as worth watching.
I won't agree with you Kasia. Even with good/perfect genes a man still has to practice a lot. Probably a whole life to be a winner. You can be really talented but without any practice and effort you won't achieve anything. It's quite obvious that we're born with different predispositions but how would we know which sport is actually for us ?
ReplyDeleteNaturally, there should be no drugs allowed, in any form. Everything should be pure nature and 100% hard work.
I think we don't know what "pure nature" really means. There are so many controversions, for example the famous case of Caster Semenya (world champion, middle-distance runner).
ReplyDeleteSure, I didn't want to say that it is ONLY good gens, what you need to win. I wanted only to point that when the same effort is made, some of them can have slightly better results.
ReplyDeleteAccording to "pure nature" - many plants are forbidden to eat/drink/... although they come from nature :)
I agree with this part of the article, but also only in some aspects. Good gens have tremendous impact on results. Not all of us have required predispositions. However there are also other relevants factors than accompy the sweet succes. A lot of forgotten people lived on our planet and wasted their outstanding talents becouse of their life style. Passion and a very hard training are also the ingredients required to become legendary. For example mentioned in the article record of Christian Adam. How much time he must have spent? How self-disciplined life he must lead? And how rigour where his trainigs combined with a proper diet? A good sportsmen simply must love what he is doing and for him it must bee fun. Let's say a footballer - Ronaldinho, everyone who looked at him while he was playing saw that he loved his job, he was always smyling - and he made his job correctly.
ReplyDeleteCompetitions are made to pick the best person of all involved in. People need this to feel that they are good at something and their hard work paid off. Of course its easier if you already found in which you are better than the others even if you practice as much as your participants.
ReplyDeleteIts not only about sport because it makes perfect match with all life's domains. The sad truth tell us that in many cases we just can't find right thing for us to do.
I mostly agree with your article Maciek, although, I also find it quite controversial to say that good genes are the most important factor in sports. We may never know how many people in the world have better physical capacity than above-mentioned Armstrong. I suppose there may be plenty. However not all of them decide to follow the dream of being the best cyclist, and most importantly - only a few have the perseverance to achieve it.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to doping, I have done some research on the internet and have found an interesting and true story:
ReplyDeleteThomas J. Hicks, an American born in England on January 7, 1875 won the Olympic marathon in 1904. He crossed the line behind a fellow American, Fred Lorz, whose concept of marathon-running extended to riding half the way in a car. But nor did Hicks compete without outside help. His trainer, Charles Lucas, pulled out a hypodermic and came to his aid as his runner began to struggle.
'I therefore decided to inject him with a milligram of sulphate of strychnine and to make him drink a large glass brimming with brandy. He set off again as best he could (but) he needed another injection four miles from the end to give him a semblance of speed and to get him to the finish.'
The use of strychnine, far from being banned, was thought necessary to survive demanding races, says the sports historian Alain Lunzenfichter. The historian of sports doping, Dr Jean-Pierre de Mondenard, said:
'It has to be appreciated that at the time the menace of doping for the health of athletes or of the purity of competition had yet to enter the morals because, after this marathon, the official race report said: The marathon has shown Linda is lush from a medical point of view how drugs can be very useful to athletes in long-distance races.'
Hicks was, in the phrase of the time, "between life and death" but recovered, collected his gold medal a few days later, and lived for almost 60 more years, although he never again took part in athletics.
I read all comments and I have quite different opinion...
ReplyDeleteLet's take that example:
I've 10 years old and I want to be the fastest runner in 100m...
10 Years later I run in Athletics Olympics and I'm 4-th...
I've 20 and no work, no education, no girlfriend, no friends because I spend 10 years only for hard Exercises... I signify nothing for sports world...
Think about it..
Actually many factors depend on the sport itself - it is quite obvious that F1 is about driver AND engineers AND the team as a whole. Even if cup goes only for a driver.
ReplyDeleteMoreover, I believe that without competition (not only in sports) we would probably still live on trees and our main food would be bananas.