The quality of performance during international competitions such as the Olympic Games and various world championships is often judged by the number of world records attained. The simple fact that world records continue to improve is evidence that sports performance is progressing. Does this also mean that athletes are improving? Is the continual progression of world-record performances evidence that contemporary athletes are superior to the athletes who performed in the past? Technological developments may obscure insight into the athletic enhancement made by athletes over the years. This commentary tries to separate technological and athletic enhancement in the progression of world records by the use of a power balance model.
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World Records: How Much Athlete? How Much Technology?
Jos J. de Koning
Why—How—What—So What
Jos J. de Koning
You’ll Never Walk Alone
Jos J. de Koning
Who Is Taking Care of the Orphan?
Jos J. de Koning
Data, More Data, Big Data
Jos J. de Koning
Let the Race Begin!
Jos J. de Koning
“I Touch the Future. I Teach.”
Jos J. de Koning
Nonfunctional Overreaching, Witches, and the Tour de France
Jos J. de Koning
Evolutionary Pattern of Improved 1-Mile Running Performance
Carl Foster, Jos J. de Koning, and Christian Thiel
The official world records (WR) for the 1-mile run for men (3:43.13) and for women (4:12.58) have improved 12.2% and 32.3%, respectively, since the first WR recognized by the International Association of Athletics Federations. Previous observations have suggested that the pacing pattern for successive laps is characteristically faster-slower-slowest-faster. However, modeling studies have suggested that uneven energy-output distribution, particularly a high velocity at the end of the race, is essentially wasted kinetic energy that could have been used to finish sooner. Here the authors report that further analysis of the pacing pattern in 32 men’s WR races is characterized by a progressive reduction in the within-lap variation of pace, suggesting that improving the WR in the 1-mile run is as much about how energetic resources are managed as about the capacity of the athletes performing the race. In the women’s WR races, the pattern of lap times has changed little, probably secondary to a lack of depth in the women’s fields. Contemporary WR performances have been achieved a coefficient of variation of lap times on the order of 1.5–3.0%. Reasonable projection suggests that the WR is overdue for improving and may require lap times with a coefficient of variation of ~1%.