If you're implying the new records were set with the help of PEDs, odds are good the old records were set with the help of PEDs too.
I致e been watching lots of track and field highlights this last week and I知 struck by the number of American records that have tumbled. Sooooo. Just good old fashioned rest and hard work? I知 not pointing at anyone in particular just the totality of it. Maybe I知 just an ass but it seems a little too good to be true.
If you're implying the new records were set with the help of PEDs, odds are good the old records were set with the help of PEDs too.
100 years ago, 6 ft. broad shoulders, athletic guy was considered to be the best body type for all sports. As the years went by it turned out that this thinking was flawed for obvious (to us) reasons. The attention turned to specialization and looking for specific things like foot size and torso to legs length ratio in swimmers (Micheal Phelps for ex.). I remember that in early 2000s there was a discussion about the need for cherry picking extremely gifted individuals and turning them into professional athletes. So it might be that now we are seeing the results of that idea. Those cherry picked kids would be at their prime right now.
If it is a results of drugs I think it would have something to do with DNA, genetics, etc... Just making those gifted humans a little bit more gifted.
Glad you mentioned it. I have watched many of the Olympic qualifiers and had the same reaction as you. That track in Oregon is very favorable to the sprinters, but that does not explain the other world records in shotput etc being broken. You described it well - the totality of it.
How about those speed walkers, huh? Absurd.
The Olympic Committee and NBC and the all the latest nonsense (New Zealand male lifter competing as a woman) has ruined it. And I used to enjoy the track and field competitions.
Rip, we have selected the weekend archive article: The Olympic Games: Time to Stop.
Or maybe we hold off until the opening ceremony.
Might be due to corona.
Anybody who is anybody continued to train right through that mess with no competitions available to interrupt training...I know we did.
People may have staved off what would have been nagging injuries this way also.
And the opposite: some people might have been doing too much before.
Peaking, or a taper, for a meet is short term way to display gains from the previous longer training block,
but it is really not adding anything to your abilities in the longer term.
You need to train in a specific way for the long term to get better for the long term.
Also, drugs, lack of testing/testers, etc. is a possibility as well.
There have been some advances in shoe technology, not as bad as squat suits, but real nonetheless:
Nike VaporFly ban avoided as World Athletics imposes new rules - Sports Illustrated
In the strength events, the shot put record has already fallen and at least the heavyweight lifting records are expected to go, but I have no comment on that.
There was probably some sort of breakthrough in burrito technology.