LONDON, December 18: Observations of experts at the Institute for Biomedical Research and Sports Epidemiology (IRMES) in France suggest that there will be no new sporting world records after 2060, as humans will have reached their physiological limits by that time.
The researchers followed analysis of 3,260 world records set since 1896, the year of the first modern Olympics. They found that athletes of that time used 75 per cent of their physical capacity, while it has touched 99 per cent mark today.
Five disciplines, namely, athletics, cycling, weightlifting, swimming, and speed skating were studied during the study.
Based on their observations, the researchers came to the conclusion that sportsmen would soon start using 100 per cent of their physical capacity.
“It’s the beginning of the end,” the Telegraph quoted Jean-Francois Toussaint, the head of IRMES, as saying.
The researchers also reckoned that some current records - such as 10.49 seconds for the women’s 100 metres, set by Florence Griffith-Joyner in 1988 - might remain unbroken forever.
Toussaint believes that records should be less important than the way a race is run and the quality of the sporting contest in future.
I can see that record never being broken, even though marion came the closet but we know what happed to her. But at the same time evelyn ashford and merlene were good for 10.7 so I change my mind I will go down one day.
The things about these doomsday predictions - the end of records - is that they don’t take into account that humans, like all living things, are continually evolving. Who would have thought a guy as big as Asafa Powell would be able to start as fast as a short guy like Andre Cason?
based on their opinion and the need to publish something after getting grant funding.
as for Flo-Jo and her 10.4, the reason i don’t think it’ll go down is becasue it was probably wind aided. if you adjust for wind she wasn’t really within 2 tenths the rest of that meet or ever.
I dont really think that much evolution took place in the 10-15 years between Cason and Powells birth, and if anything I dont see humans evolving and adapting to become better physical specimens.
Will nutrition, whatever you take that to mean, continue to evolve? Yes. Will training continue to evolve? Yes. Will there continue once in a while to be statisical genetic anomolies? Of course.
To think that events and sports that have only had records kept for 100 years or less will never have another record after the next 60 years if the events continue on indefinately is rediculous.
It’s nonsense. They may be partly right, as in, humans and conditions may remain constant from 2060 into the relative forseeable future, but what they’re suggesting is that the greatest athletes to ever live must have been born and competed prior to 2060. What happens if the world’s fastest-ever human (other then myself) is born in 2079 and competes in the 2104 Olympics and runs a WR? There’s as much chance of that happening as there is of anything. They can reason that WR’s may remain reasonably stable, and are near their peak levels for current human physiological qualities, but you can’t ever rule out the birth of some great, better-then-ever-before individual. It’s bound to happen. That’s life.