
We Are Nowhere Close to the Limits of Athletic Performance - okket
http://nautil.us/issue/39/sport/we-are-nowhere-close-to-the-limits-of-athletic-performance
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foldr
This is only true because running 1/100th of a second faster than the last
person is considered sufficient to set a new world record. Will someone
eventually run very slightly faster than Bolt? Probably. But there is no real
reason to think that anyone will ever, say, run 100m in 7 seconds. That's pure
speculation.

I think the article also underplays the role of training. It's extraordinary
how poorly athletes trained even as recently as 50 years ago. This is evident
when you look at the performance of lower tier athletes. There are now very
many people who can run a 4 minute mile, even though this was an extraordinary
feat as recently as 1954. Are they all genetic freaks? Or are they just
training more effectively than runners did in the 50s?

