Field Theory: Those Jamaican Yams
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Oh, and both titles are notable for more geek-gasmic nods to the more obscure corners of Marvel and DC's convoluted continuity than is entirely sane.
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I think you're actually thinking of Marvels...
You're right you know, I am.
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My old PE teacher had the theory that in the next few decades there'll probably be a drug olympics set up and a non-drug, just because who wouldn't want to see a man bench-press 1500kg, or do a 10sec 200m, etc etc - there have been instances in the states where sperm banks have been set up for elite athletes, and later women donate eggs, in an attempt to see if the genes work - or there's the Chinese and DPRNK practice of mandatory core-sampling and removal of children who have promising musculature [something which apparently occurs in the US also, but to a more sedate extent, according to a textbook I cannot remember].
Moral questions which stemmed from this though were;
a. In today's PC world, will people watch guys and girls take all kinds of crap and risk dying just for a few minutes of entertainment?
b. Which is likely to be a more favoured marketing model for companies? [likely answered by a]
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And after listening to the BBC doucmentaries, it seems utterly predictable that it is sports particularly popular in Europe - athletics and cycling - that are the most utterly compromised ones.
Why is that predictable? I'd expect a pretty simple correlation between sports where you can make a huge amount of money, and the amount of (attempted) doping. I'd be astonished if, say, the NFL and NBA weren't hotbeds of steroid use.
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In today's PC world, will people watch guys and girls take all kinds of crap and risk dying just for a few minutes of entertainment?
Two words: professional wrestling.
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My old PE teacher had the theory that in the next few decades there'll probably be a drug olympics set up and a non-drug
Nah... much easier to just say that if everyone does it (or we assume they do), it's not really cheating. Seriously -- denial and/or enabling is your cost effective friend.
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Seems everyone's thinking Terry Pratchett today
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Cough....
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Ah, should probably point out that that was in reply to Jack's commnent:
I'd be astonished if, say, the NFL and NBA weren't hotbeds of steroid use.
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<sigh> Halflings and Spiderman. Both get a handy bonus to saving throws, you know.
Oddly, Bolt's new sprint record has pushed the theoretical limit for the 100m from 9.5 down to 9.2. That's got to be mostly from his leg length.Certainly evolution can beat that, as can springier tracks and shoes. If a Cheetah's good for 5.6 seconds or so, that's got to be closer to a true limit in the extreme long term for those sprinter-breeding and technological advancement programs.
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A number of the female athletes from the former Eastern Bloc and East Germany in particular have had sex changes. Is this a result of all the 'vitamins' they were injected with (iow they were on a hormone course anyway) or because athletes tend to the testosterone end anyway? We will never know for individual cases, the numbers are too low for the stats to be significant, but it is highly suggestive.
As for those who say Bolt must be drugged, you just don't understand the modern testing regime. It has already been mentioned that the IAAF have baseline blood samples for him. This means any significant changes in natural hormone or significant metabolite levels now need to be explained. Not especially relevant to sprinters, more to catch EPO taking distance runners trying desperately to keep with the East Africans, but the principle is there. What this means is that even he takes entirely natural human hormones, not synthetic ones, they can detect the change.
The risky time for Bolt will be in the future when for eg he is struggling with the inevitable injuries, the major championship is coming up and he is getting older and some Bolt junior is snapping at his orange heels. Right now he has no need and no reason. He is simply a very happy, and rare (?) conjuction of very fast muscles and long legs. The conservative opinion is that if your legs are too long you may be fast but it will take you 30-40m to get them going by which time you are dead last to the Tyson Gays of the world. That is Bolt's special thing, he has sufficient acceleration to overcome the handicap of those long legs which is why he goes away so fast once he really gets going.
The phenomenon is not just that though, the man is a breath of fresh air. You want to know my theory on why that final was the fastest ever? Those men were relaxed because Bolt punctured the traditional silverback male swagger fest that used to rack up the tension. Supreme athletic performance comes when the athlete relaxes into it, vis Primos Cozmus's final hammer throw after the gold medal was in the bag.
As for putting the shot, it is not just about throwing it as hard as you can. It is about finding the perfect fusion of timing, motion and effort such that you manage to put as much of your weight and muscle behind it and release it at the perfect time and trajectory*, and still stay inside the circle afterwards. If it was just about strength they could use a gym machine to decide it.
*Valerie Villi's shots were straight down the middle, think about it.
BTW the shortest woman in the high jump field (I forget her name) holds the world record for differential jumping of 34cm. What this means is that she can jump over a bar 34cm above her head. Blanka Vlasic can't come close to that.
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And after listening to the BBC doucmentaries, it seems utterly predictable that it is sports particularly popular in Europe - athletics and cycling - that are the most utterly compromised ones.
Bollocks. Athletics is big in the US, and football is big in Europe, and yet athletics is druggy but football isn't.
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The IAAF has just announced that NONE of the samples from the men's 100m final have tested positive as well as that none of them has tested positive in the last year.
Remember that they also have the younger athletes like Bolt's baseline blood samples which mean even if they take entirely natural human steroids it will show up. This can also show up blood doping (not relevant for the sprints) and EPO doping with human EPO (ditto).
So to all those sceptics, where is the evidence? BTW for the record I am one of those who thinks Dwayne Chambers should have been banned for life, I don't care how clean he is now, he still benefits from muscles artificially enhanced since he has never stopped training.
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Remember that they also have the younger athletes like Bolt's baseline blood samples which mean even if they take entirely natural human steroids it will show up.
What if a runner was on natural steroids when they took the baseline? Then they just have to monitor their levels so they don't move significantly out of the range.
(I can tell I'm going to have to write a post on this)
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What if a runner was on natural steroids when they took the baseline? Then they just have to monitor their levels so they don't move significantly out of the range.
But wouldn't that require constantly keeping the balance exactly right, which seems like it wouldn't be that easy?
I might be naive, but I would like to believe there are people in the world who are just freakishly good, and not cheating.
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But wouldn't that require constantly keeping the balance exactly right, which seems like it wouldn't be that easy?
You mean like training constantly? :)
I might be naive, but I would like to believe there are people in the world who are just freakishly good, and not cheating.
Me too, which is why it's annoying when athletes are found to have cheated (Floyd Landis)
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But wouldn't that require constantly keeping the balance exactly right, which seems like it wouldn't be that easy?
You mean like training constantly? :)
Well, no, I meant medically. Drug regimens are pretty hard to keep straight at the best of times, let alone for people training/travelling/competing etc constantly, I'd have thought.
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Well, no, I meant medically. Drug regimens are pretty hard to keep straight at the best of times, let alone for people training/travelling/competing etc constantly, I'd have thought.
He probably could have a personal staff of half a dozen people and not notice the financial impact. Someone to carry his pills and add them to his muesli wouldn't be too hard.
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Someone to carry his pills and add them to his muesli wouldn't be too hard.
At the Olympics he said it was McNuggets
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So to all those sceptics, where is the evidence? BTW for the record I am one of those who thinks Dwayne Chambers should have been banned for life, I don't care how clean he is now
Agreed. One positive test and you never compete in professional sport again.
5.6 - there's a time to aim for. Perhaps it's time to start engineering those muscles fibres from cheetahs into humans?
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Agreed. One positive test and you never compete in professional sport again.
I think there's a bit of a scale. If we believe shane warne, he was just done for a pill that any non-professional sports person could have taken, which he did by mistake. That's pretty different (for me) than an athlete who's pumping steroids into their body via weekly syringe sessions.
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At least the processes around detecting drug cheats seem to be improving.
But “at least a month” to work out if that South African is actually male???
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The New York Times asks an interesting question: What if you're elderly, and need those drugs?
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But “at least a month” to work out if that South African is actually male???
Which is because it's not a male/female binary answer. From Science of Sport:
I must clarify this - it's not an issue of male vs female, but of "entirely female", since she may possess secondary male characteristics as a result of some condition, reported as hermaphroditism
So they are, I believe, currently trying to decide her degree of "maleness" and how much it is aiding her.
(I'm part way through a post that discusses this)
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There might well be only limited benefit in a sprinter or jumper using drugs other than the power building steroids. Endurance sports are obviously more vulnerable, especially cycle touring, when recovery rates are critical.
Football is not really about unusual stamina but more about co-ordination and reflexive skills.
I can see benefit in simple stimulants for most big occasions.
I recall somebody telling me that using LSD had improved the accuracy of his kicking. Dunno how it was tested.
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