Running a mile in less than four minutes used to be considered, by many, physiologically impossible. However, in the nearly 56 years since Roger Bannister did four laps of the Iffley Road Track in Oxford, U.K. in 3 min, 59.4 seconds, runners have whittled the world record down to three minutes, 43.13 seconds.
By Gillian Grace, National Post
Running a mile in less than four minutes used to be considered, by many, physiologically impossible. However, in the nearly 56 years since Roger Bannister did four laps of the Iffley Road Track in Oxford, U.K. in 3 min, 59.4 seconds, runners have whittled the world record down to three minutes, 43.13 seconds.
But that record hasn't had any challengers since it was set by Hicham El Guerrouj in 1999.
So it is possible human athletic achievement has reached its limit?
In a fascinating piece in the Los Angeles Times (a must-read for any athlete, armchair or otherwise) Shari Roan
quotes several scientists who argue it has.
One France-based scientist even goes so far as to say "the peak of athletic achievement was reached in 1988. Eleven world records were broken that year in track and field. Seven of them stand still." (Also not bad years: 1943, 1958, and 1968; apparently wars and prosperity spur competitors' urge to win.)
From the piece:
"We saw a strong evolution of performance during the past century," says study author Geoffroy Berthelot, a researcher at INSEP, an internationally respected school and research institute for athletes in Paris. "Then in the 1990s we started to see a decrease in performance. Now, there are a lot of events that don't show any progression at all."
In track and field, Berthelot found, peak times have not improved in 64% of events since 1993. In swimming, performances stagnated in 47% of events after 1990, rising again around 2000 when new high-tech swimsuits proven to improve performance were introduced.
In other words, any new records have technology to thank. Or, on occasion, the fact that sports are no longer the pastime of amateur, Oxbridge athletes à la Bannister, but an array of full-time competitors with trainers, masseuses and free K2 skis. That includes those whom Roan calls "extreme outliers," or the almost freakishly genetically gifted. (Think of Ian Thorpe's size-17 feet, or the double-jointed Michael Phelps).
According to the article, the only way forward (besides certain frowned-upon-by-most-sporting bodies performance-enhancing substances) may be biomechanical innovation, such as teaching runners to increase the force of each stride.
