Will sports records ever stop?

And if so, when? .. Questions that this report seeks to answer based on the opinions of specialists from different scientific fields.

In a report published by the French magazine Sciencesetavenir, writer Frank Daninos said that the slogans that are usually circulated in the Olympic Games are "the strongest, the fastest, among others."

Chosen in 1894 by Pierre de Coubertin, this logo is meant to encourage athletes to challenge themselves and constantly advance.

The writer asked: Has this endeavor reached its limits?

Jeffroy Berthelot, a bioinformatics scientist at the Institute for Biomedical Research and Mathematical Epidemiology (IRMS), answers, “The work we did between 2008 and 2015 shows anyway that they are stabilizing. Records are falling in some sports like shot put, indicating that we have reached the end of the physiological capabilities of the human race.”

The author explains that the Irms Institute analyzed about 3,300 Olympic records in "quantifiable" disciplines such as athletics, cycling, swimming, weightlifting and speed skating.

The best annual performances in athletics and swimming have also been analyzed for more than 40,000 results, as well as "non-standard" events such as rowing (regatta).

According to the author;

In general, the researchers observed the same phenomenon of saturation;

“Our mathematical models suggest that 50% of Olympic records will reach 99.95% of their assumed limits in 2027, if conditions of practice remain generally unchanged. This will be true for all disciplines around 2070,” Jeffroy Berthelot said.

The writer returns to the question: Why this stagnation?

He pointed out that for François Degors, the physiologist at Ermes, the reason is the exploitation of all the factors of progress since the end of the 19th century.

"The physical condition and health status of athletes were improved, strategic and mental aspects were explored, early detection prepared for future athletes, and new methodological materials such as carbon fiber poles were used," he added. High-level sports also benefited from the improvement in the general living conditions of the population.

In particular;

A richer diet and hygiene changed the profile of high-profile sport;

The height and body mass of men went from an average of 1.67 meters relative to a weight of 65 kilograms at the end of the 19th century to 1.77 meters and 77 kilograms at the beginning of the 21st century in France, which allowed this larger muscular system over the larger skeleton to increase training loads and thus athletic prowess.

Record numbers and an increase in the number of exceptional genotypes

Meanwhile, the world's population has increased by 370 percent in the past century, from 1.6 to 6.1 billion people, and the result has been a proportionate increase in the number of exceptional genotypes potentially trained.

He adds that without forgetting the political and economic context;

Several Olympic records were broken during the "Cold War," the period of political tension between the United States and the Soviet Union between 1947 and 1991;

While this was not the case during the Great Depression of the 1930s and the two world wars.

Americans, Soviets, and Germans in the GDR had already mobilized enormous means to try to demonstrate the supremacy of their political systems through their athletes and sometimes resort to state doping, and François Degors estimates that "some of the specific records created at the time may never be equal; as The tightening of anti-doping at the end of the 1990s undoubtedly contributes to the current ceiling."

The writer notes that there are some suspicious performances, such as the record for the women's 100 meters race, which was broken by the American Florence Griffith Joyner;

Such displays complicate the work of scientists who risk predictions at theoretical limits, emphasized Jean-Claude Pinault, of the Human Evolution Dynamics Unit at the National Center for Scientific Research;

“Sometimes it is very difficult to distinguish the physiological and mechanical capabilities of steroids,” he said. “We must take into account atypical performances, even those obtained under questionable conditions which blurs our models.”

What is the margin to advance records thanks to new technologies?

The writer believes that it is expected that the most important new techniques will be adopted in the latest disciplines, such as the women's hammer throw that was approved in 2000 at the Sydney Olympics, and new artistic gestures will allow major gains such as the "spine roll" technique in the high jump that has become popular 1968 by Dick Fosbury.

But these techniques remain rare even if specialists seek to discover them;

François Degors stated that "physicists from the École Polytechnique are trying to determine by arithmetic, the new rowing technique, but it will be about desynchronizing the movement of the rowers in order to avoid tremors and reduce friction."

However, Olivier Belloc, who is in charge of the French junior teams at the National Athletics Federation, remains optimistic, convinced that "many avenues remain to be explored".

The author concludes that several licensed techniques are already being evaluated by the National Institute for Sport and Performance's anti-doping authorities, including "hypoxic chambers", which are oxygen-depleted chambers;

Organisms prepare for greater resistance by producing more red blood cells or "whole body cryotherapy," which subjects athletes to frigid temperatures of -110°C, in order to induce analgesic and anti-inflammatory reactions.

It remains certain that improving performance appears to be essential to the attractiveness of many disciplines.