Are athletes really getting faster, better, stronger?

Well, kids are not doing much physical in general now days which effects things like testosterone. But it also effects the mind a great athlete needs a well developed mind for his sport. For instance Micky Mantale or Bobby Hull were a little under 200 pounds but have the hardest slap shot and longest home runs.

 

PED argument can be summed up well by Tour De France times dropping off since stringent tests started, and they've never gone up since.


and seriously what has thousands of sprinters slowly whittling down the a running time by split seconds due to having millions of more attempts, got to do with boxing skill?


I notice its been pages and theres still no explanation of how someone bigger is faster too. Same old culprits here.

 

They are faster because they are faster, and just happen to be bigger.

Speed and weight can be at odds if you view that lighter is faster. Not really. You won't see world class speed at the lower weights ( 105-160 ) on the track, the fastest sprinters are often 180-210. Usain Bolt, for example, is listed at 205 pounds. He's the fast man living, and the fastest man since records have been kept in the 100-meter dash.

In the NFL you can see really fast people above 220 pounds who are also big.

 

Ussain Bolt

 

No

 

yeh i knew some clown would write that, but Usain is notorious for being a relatively slow accelerator, so no.

 

no, you are relating sprinting directly to boxing again. just how wrong do you want to be.

 

Yeah. Height is better for top speed, but worse for getting to speed. I've heard in the past a lot of people would've thought him too tall to be a great sprinter.

I went through it before, and a lot of the best sprint times are from fairly short guys like 5ft 7in Nesta Carter. I can't remember where I posted that though, and I'm not going through it again.

 

If you’re comfortable claiming that Usain Bolt isn’t fast, that’s fine. It’s not surprising since you’re also comfortable making a fool of yourself on this board on a daily basis for years on end.

 

acceleration, dont pretend to be clever. not even a good try from you there.

 

You're fantastically wrong about almost every point here. Sprint speed and jumping ability are crucially linked to weight/power ratio.

Here's this year's top 10 100 meter performers:

Chris Coleman: 159 pounds
Ronnie Baker: 175 pounds
Noah Lyles: 154 pounds
Michael Rodgers: 169 pounds
Zharnel Hughes: 175 pounds
Su Bingtian: 143 pounds
Jimmy Vicaut: 168 pounds
Isaiah Young: 175 pounds
Cameron Burrell: 158 pounds
Akani Simbine: 163 pounds

Well, at least you are consistent.

 

You seem to be making my argument for me. You point out that the best of today’s champions are the eastern block fighters with extensive amateur experience. I don’t think it’s a contradiction that some fighters are able to gain experienced before going pro. However, these are exceptions not the rule. In America for example amateur Boxing has taken a major hit in popularity.

Both sugar Ray Leonard and Andre Ward have careers worked with extensive in active periods due to injury. As great as Andre Ward appears to have been for many his career will always be a bit of a question mark.

 

I'm not a track guy, but I do know the famous ones.

Bolt is the one I know, and he's 205 lbs

Carl Lewis was also famous enough for me to know, he's 175.

Micheal Johnson, also 175.

 

Looking up the winners of the 100 meter dash

Year Winner Weight
1996 Donovan Bailey (CAN) 91 kg / 201 lb
2000 Maurice Greene (USA) 75 kg / 165 lb
2004 Justin Gatlin (USA) 83 kg / 183 lb
2008 Usain Bolt (JAM) 94 kg / 207 lb

Of course track and field is the worst PED sport, but as far as the weight goes my guess is they are heavier than the people who ran 50 years ago.

 

I'm not a track guy, but I can look things up. Even sprinters are getting bigger.

You should be embarrassed if you consider yourself a track guy and did not know this:


source: height and weight data was collected from Wikipedia profiles of each athlete, and when none was available, from the sports-reference.com website.

Height changes over time
The height of the Olympic 100m champion has generally increased since the first Olympic Games. The first winner Tom Burke was 1.83 m (6 ft) though 6 out of the next 8 winners were 1.71cm or lower. The tallest is the current champion Usain Bolt at 1.95m (6 ft 5 in).

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Weight changes over time
The weight of the Olympic 100m champion has generally increased since the first Olympic Games, from around 60-70 kg (130-154 lb) in the early Olympic years up to 94 kg (207 lb) Usain Bolt.

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BMI changes over time
The BMI of the Olympic 100m champion has generally increased over time. As the BMI reflects the ratio of weight to height, an increasing BMI indicates that body weight has increased to a greater extent than height. Body fat would not be expected to be higher in the modern sprinter (the opposite is probably true), so this increase in weight is probably explained by a greater muscle mass of the current sprinters.

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Note: This analysis is for illustrative purposes only. The data was from different sources, and may also not accurately represent their measurements at the time of their race.




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