National Geographic

10.49Florence Griffith-Joyner, U.S.July 16, 1988``````Fastest time sinceGriffith-Joyner:10.64Carmelita JeterSeptember 20, 20099. 5 8Usain Bolt, JamaicaAugust 16, 20099. 6 99.7 21970 1980 1990 2000 2010Faster tracksPolyurethane tracksdebuted at the 1968Olympics. The tracks arebouncier and return energyto a runner; cinder tracksabsorbed energy.``````Better timekeepingEarly stopwatches measuredonly fifths of a second. Itwasn’t until 1977 that fullydigital timekeeping—tothe hundredths of seconds—became mandatory.``````Lightning strikes thriceUsain Bolt broke themen’s world record twicein 2008 and again in 2009,dropping it by 0.14seconds, more than anyman in the modern era.``````The unbeatable FloJoThe top three women’s times areheld by Florence Griffith-Joyner.She never tested positive for ste-roids, but her 1988 record—stillunbroken today—shows how greatperformances can raise suspicion.``````few of the perks of modern athletes. To get toBerlin, he and other U.S. athletes spent severaldays crossing the Atlantic on an ocean liner.Bolt, who ran the 100 meters in a record 9.58seconds in 2009 and retired last year, is stillwidely recognized as the world’s fastest man.But how much faster was he, really, than elitesprinters of previous generations like Owens?Setting aside the questions about performance-enhancing drugs, how far have we come in ournever ending quest to go faster, higher, and far-ther? And what are we learning about how tech-nology and new training methods can help uspush the limits of human performance?A demonstration included in a 2014 Ted Talkgiven by sports journalist David Epstein showedthat if Owens had run on the same surface asBolt, Owens’s best time in the 100 meters (10.2seconds)—accomplished shortly before the 1936Olympics—could have been within one stride ofBolt’s performance in the 100 meters (9.77 sec-onds) at the 2013 World Championships.In the eight decades since Owens’s historicvictories, improvements in training, testing,``````technique, clothing, and equipment have helpedathletes become better, faster, stronger, andmore precise. But researchers believe we havenot yet reached the limits of human possibility.Peter Weyand, who runs the Locomotor Per-formance Laboratory at Southern Methodist Uni-versity in Dallas, Texas, and is one of the world’sleading experts on the biomechanics of sprinting,says that the potential for significant improve-ment in the 100- and 200-meter sprints and inmarathons is not out of the question. His lab useshigh-speed video analysis to study sprinters’ tech-niques, looking for ways to make them more ei-cient—and faster. Weyand is part of a team led byUnited Kingdom sports scientist Yannis Pitsiladisthat’s focused on breaking the two-hour mara-thon barrier. (A similar Nike efort fell short in2017.) To help athletes shatter records, research-ers are focusing on such key areas as physiol-ogy, nutrition, biomechanics, medical support,real-time monitoring, and coaching. This kindof scientific knowledge “allows performance tobe improved,” Weyand said.To help athletes legally push the limits of per-formance, scientists are experimenting with newtechniques and equipment, measuring perfor-mance in novel ways, and monitoring athletes’nutrition and physical and mental health.That amazing pass by a player on your favoritesoccer team? It might have gotten its start with atraining machine called the Footbonaut, whichfires soccer balls at a player at varying speedsand rhythms, forcing the player to control theball and send it to an open slot in the machine.``````Separate records for manualand electronic times werekept from 1968 to 1977 astechnology was improving.``````FASTER, HIGHER, SMARTER, STRONGER 53