How do we even know the tracks back in the day weren't a little short?

Good point. I believe humanity only became able to measure things accurately around 2012.

Actually, they were uphill on both sides and under at least a foot of snow.

But they were accurate!

Actually they had plenty of bicarb. They probably had more than we have now, what with people eating less bakery items. No excuses there.

I will have you know for fact that the hippodrome in Naples is 12 meters short. All these Neopolitan charioteers getting into the big festivals in Rome and choking proves it! I'm just sad they took spots from good Romans who's horses could have added to the competition.

What made things turn around in 2012?

Epstein.

399.05m measurement by a usatf measurement officer… a track used at a popular event; I’ve tried to communicate it here but I was banned. This is an event where the winning time was 3:50, last summer. I’ve been using this handle since August… I have the paperwork to prove it. This is a modern constructed track.

I ran for Haverford in the mid 80s and they had a new indoor track (which was just replaced). I think it was measured to have a rail but in my memory the rail was never there when we raced which means for sure we were running slightly shorter distances. All of my track PRs (indoor and out) are from that track.

High school level math, water levels, string lines, measuring devices, plumb bobs, etc have existed for thousands of years as evidenced by the pyramids, Greek/Roman buildings, etc

Intelligent elementary school children could accurately lay out a track by hand, even if it had non-standard dimensions like 80m straights and 120m turns.

That would mean a time was 0.546 seconds faster than it would have been on a full 400m track.

I ran on cinder tracks. We had to literally climb the cinder rocks to get over them. I say they were 10 seconds per lap slower than modern tracks.

I could have been a 40 second 400 runner.

Did they measure at the theoretical running line? Ie 30cm from the kerb? A “standard” track is 398.116m if measured on the kerb. Variations in track dimensions allow for that measurement to be longer/shorter. But the running line is always 400m.

There was an article in Track & Field News in the late 90s where someone went to some of the tracks used for major meets in Europe (Oslo, Rome, Berlin, etc.) and measured them with a calibrated wheel. Every track was short to a small degree. I see no reason why that wouldn't still be true with modern tracks.

Also, the track where the Chinese women ran a bunch of WRs in the mid-90s was torn out immediately after that meet. They knew the track was short and didn't want anyone to check it.

Measured my high school track with a wheel last year. Stuck to the right side of the thick white line while walking counterclockwise----being as straight as possible. It was less than an inch when I came around again to the start/finish line.

That less than an inch is on me as it's easy to lose a 1/16th of an inch 6 or 7 times while going around a track that big. Your results may very.

OP. You got your initial post wrong.

In this day and age of Covid didn't come from a lab in China, Lia Thomas is an NCAA champion, am I to actually believe the tracks are 100% accurately measured correctly in the year 2026?

50 years ago. 400m was 400m. Now they measure it and then think about politics, what DEI groups they might offend and then announce the results.

You’d be correct

This was measured by a USATF measurement officer. I have the paperwork, but the manufacturer of the track measured it just over 400m by a tiny margin .. of course.

Big if true! I hope you do email Rojo.

If you’re saying a qualified surveyor filled out a measurement report and found the track to be short, that would be a very big deal.