Since the introduction of modern timing technology noone dipped under 10 seconds until the Mexico Olympics at altitude - and after that it did not happen again for a long time. The world's best times did not change much for about half a century. I don't buy that the proliferation of sub-10 times is down to improved diet and training regimes.
I'm inclined to believe that running under 10 seconds without steroids is simply not possible for a human being.
never mind 10 seconds - nobody even got under 10.2 until 1956 - hand timed. The fastest auto was 10.38.
What got the record rush going was the same thing that made the mile record drop 10 seconds in about 10 years. It was not steroids, it was amphetamines introduced in the late 30's and mass marketed after the war. Steroids are what athletes turned to when the IOC started testing for amphetamines - in-competition doping was no longer practical.
If you doubt that it was the speed, not the steroids, look no further than the WR progression you already mentioned. Over the next 18 years it advanced only 0.02 seconds, even though steroid testing didn't begin until 1976 and out-of-competition testing until 1988. Only in 1987 was someone good enough at steroid use to make a big breakthrough. A few years later, his rival Carl Lewis - one of countless sprinters to "accidentally" ingest cold medicine containing ephedra, an amphetamine-like stimulant - managed to approach the nullified record Johnson had set in 1987.
Now watch some old-timer get offended by the implication that there were a lot of elite dopers before 1968 - maybe their own heroes even.
If in-competition use of amphetamines were re-legalized, records would drop by about 1 percent almost immediately. 9.4x, 3.24, 12:30, 26 flat.
I guess that's kinda my point - what has been different in the last 30 odd years has been the use of steroids. No doubt doping has always been with us.
Bad Wigins wrote:
never mind 10 seconds - nobody even got under 10.2 until 1956 - hand timed. The fastest auto was 10.38.
What got the record rush going was the same thing that made the mile record drop 10 seconds in about 10 years. It was not steroids, it was amphetamines introduced in the late 30's and mass marketed after the war. Steroids are what athletes turned to when the IOC started testing for amphetamines - in-competition doping was no longer practical.
If you doubt that it was the speed, not the steroids, look no further than the WR progression you already mentioned. Over the next 18 years it advanced only 0.02 seconds, even though steroid testing didn't begin until 1976 and out-of-competition testing until 1988. Only in 1987 was someone good enough at steroid use to make a big breakthrough. A few years later, his rival Carl Lewis - one of countless sprinters to "accidentally" ingest cold medicine containing ephedra, an amphetamine-like stimulant - managed to approach the nullified record Johnson had set in 1987.
Now watch some old-timer get offended by the implication that there were a lot of elite dopers before 1968 - maybe their own heroes even.
If in-competition use of amphetamines were re-legalized, records would drop by about 1 percent almost immediately. 9.4x, 3.24, 12:30, 26 flat.
Good post!
But steroids can't explain the resurgence. They can't be any more roided up now than they were in the 70's and 80's.
Stimulants either, really. Ephedra's hard to get in the US due to the crackdown on methamphetamine. That's why there's all these busts for newer ones like methylhexaneamine.
Maybe there's new, better drugs out there, but I have a hunch it's a matter of simple corruption at high levels. I've always thought the same of the Tour de France, that they look the other way for favored cyclists. Nike owns USATF now and could likely arrange to protect certain runners too.
Great interview with Steve Cram - says Jakob has no chance of WRs this year
I’m a D2 female runner. Our coach explicitly told us not to visit LetsRun forums.
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