ABOUT THE SPEAKER
David Epstein - Sports science reporter
David Epstein is an investigative reporter who covers the wide-open space where sports, science and medicine overlap.

Why you should listen
David Epstein writes about the developing science around sport -- from performance-enhancing drugs to the lucky genetics that separate a professional athlete from a duffer. A science writer and longtime contributor to Sports Illustrated, he's helped break stories on steroids in baseball, fraudulently marketed health remedies, and big-money irregularities in "amateur" college football. In 2007, inspired by the death of a childhood friend, he wrote a moving exploration of the most common cause of sudden death in young athletes, a hard-to-diagnose heart irregularity known as HCM.
 
Now an investigative reporter at ProPublica, Epstein is the author of The Sports Gene, a book that explores the complex factors that make up a championship athlete. Is there such a thing as natural greatness, or can even extreme skills -- like the freaky-fast reaction of a hockey great -- be learned? Conversely, is the desire and will to master extreme skills something you're born with?
More profile about the speaker
David Epstein | Speaker | TED.com
TED2014

David Epstein: Are athletes really getting faster, better, stronger?

Filmed:
8,652,776 views

When you look at sporting achievements over the last decades, it seems like humans have gotten faster, better and stronger in nearly every way. Yet as David Epstein points out in this delightfully counter-intuitive talk, we might want to lay off the self-congratulation. Many factors are at play in shattering athletic records, and the development of our natural talents is just one of them.
- Sports science reporter
David Epstein is an investigative reporter who covers the wide-open space where sports, science and medicine overlap. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:13
The Olympic motto is "Citius, Altius, Fortius."
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Faster, Higher, Stronger.
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And athletes have fulfilled that motto rapidly.
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The winner of the 2012 Olympic marathon
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ran two hours and eight minutes.
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Had he been racing against the winner
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of the 1904 Olympic marathon,
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he would have won by nearly an hour and a half.
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Now we all have this feeling
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that we're somehow just getting better
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as a human race, inexorably progressing,
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but it's not like we've evolved into a new species
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in a century.
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So what's going on here?
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I want to take a look at what's really behind
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this march of athletic progress.
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In 1936, Jesse Owens
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held the world record in the 100 meters.
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Had Jesse Owens been racing last year
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in the world championships of the 100 meters,
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when Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt finished,
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Owens would have still had 14 feet to go.
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That's a lot in sprinter land.
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01:09
To give you a sense of how much it is,
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I want to share with you a demonstration
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conceived by sports scientist Ross Tucker.
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Now picture the stadium last year
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at the world championships of the 100 meters:
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thousands of fans waiting with baited breath
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to see Usain Bolt, the fastest man in history;
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flashbulbs popping as the
nine fastest men in the world
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coil themselves into their blocks.
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And I want you to pretend
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that Jesse Owens is in that race.
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Now close your eyes for a
second and picture the race.
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Bang! The gun goes off.
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An American sprinter jumps out to the front.
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Usain Bolt starts to catch him.
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Usain Bolt passes him, and as
the runners come to the finish,
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you'll hear a beep as each man crosses the line.
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(Beeps)
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That's the entire finish of the race.
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You can open your eyes now.
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That first beep was Usain Bolt.
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That last beep was Jesse Owens.
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Listen to it again.
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(Beeps)
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When you think of it like that,
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it's not that big a difference, is it?
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And then consider that Usain Bolt started
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by propelling himself out of blocks
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down a specially fabricated carpet
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designed to allow him to travel
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as fast as humanly possible.
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Jesse Owens, on the other hand,
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ran on cinders, the ash from burnt wood,
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and that soft surface stole far more energy
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from his legs as he ran.
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Rather than blocks, Jesse
Owens had a gardening trowel
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that he had to use to dig holes
in the cinders to start from.
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Biomechanical analysis of the speed
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of Owens' joints shows that had been running
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on the same surface as Bolt,
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he wouldn't have been 14 feet behind,
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he would have been within one stride.
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Rather than the last beep,
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Owens would have been the second beep.
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Listen to it again.
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(Beeps)
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That's the difference track
surface technology has made,
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and it's done it throughout the running world.
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Consider a longer event.
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In 1954, Sir Roger Bannister
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became the first man to run
under four minutes in the mile.
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Nowadays, college kids do that every year.
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On rare occasions, a high school kid does it.
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As of the end of last year,
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1,314 men
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had run under four minutes in the mile,
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but like Jesse Owens,
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Sir Roger Bannister ran on soft cinders
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that stole far more energy from his legs
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than the synthetic tracks of today.
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So I consulted biomechanics experts
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to find out how much slower it is to run on cinders
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than synthetic tracks,
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and their consensus that it's
one and a half percent slower.
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So if you apply a one and a half
percent slowdown conversion
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to every man who ran his sub-four mile
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on a synthetic track,
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this is what happens.
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Only 530 are left.
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If you look at it from that perspective,
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fewer than ten new men per [year]
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have joined the sub-four mile club
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since Sir Roger Bannister.
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Now, 530 is a lot more than one,
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and that's partly because
there are many more people
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training today and they're training more intelligently.
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Even college kids are professional in their training
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compared to Sir Roger Bannister,
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who trained for 45 minutes at a time
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while he ditched gynecology lectures in med school.
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And that guy who won the 1904 Olympic marathon
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in three in a half hours,
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that guy was drinking rat poison and brandy
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while he ran along the course.
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That was his idea of a performance-enhancing drug.
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(Laughter)
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Clearly, athletes have gotten more savvy
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about performance-enhancing drugs as well,
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and that's made a difference
in some sports at some times,
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but technology has made a difference in all sports,
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from faster skis to lighter shoes.
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Take a look at the record for
the 100-meter freestyle swim.
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The record is always trending downward,
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but it's punctuated by these steep cliffs.
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This first cliff, in 1956, is the introduction
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of the flip turn.
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Rather than stopping and turning around,
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athletes could somersault under the water
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and get going right away in the opposite direction.
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This second cliff, the introduction of gutters
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on the side of the pool
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that allows water to splash off,
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rather than becoming turbulence
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that impedes the swimmers as they race.
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This final cliff,
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the introduction of full-body
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and low-friction swimsuits.
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Throughout sports, technology has
changed the face of performance.
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In 1972, Eddy Merckx set the record
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for the longest distance cycled in one hour
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at 30 miles, 3,774 feet.
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Now that record improved and improved
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as bicycles improved and became more aerodynamic
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all the way until 1996,
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when it was set at 35 miles, 1,531 feet,
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nearly five miles farther
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than Eddy Merckx cycled in 1972.
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But then in 2000, the International Cycling Union
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decreed that anyone who wanted to hold that record
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had to do so with essentially the same equipment
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that Eddy Merckx used in 1972.
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Where does the record stand today?
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30 miles, 4,657 feet,
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a grand total of 883 feet
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farther than Eddy Merckx cycled
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more than four decades ago.
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Essentially the entire improvement in this record
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was due to technology.
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Still, technology isn't the only
thing pushing athletes forward.
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While indeed we haven't evolved
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into a new species in a century,
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the gene pool within competitive sports
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most certainly has changed.
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In the early half of the 20th century,
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physical education instructors and coaches
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had the idea that the average body type
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was the best for all athletic endeavors:
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medium height, medium weight, no matter the sport.
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And this showed in athletes' bodies.
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In the 1920s, the average elite high-jumper
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and average elite shot-putter
were the same exact size.
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But as that idea started to fade away,
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as sports scientists and coaches realized that
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rather than the average body type,
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you want highly specialized bodies
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that fit into certain athletic niches,
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a form of artificial selection took place,
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a self-sorting for bodies that fit certain sports,
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and athletes' bodies became
more different from one another.
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Today, rather than the same size
as the average elite high jumper,
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the average elite shot-putter
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is two and a half inches taller
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and 130 pounds heavier.
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And this happened throughout the sports world.
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In fact, if you plot on a height versus mass graph
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one data point for each of two dozen sports
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in the first half of the 20th century, it looks like this.
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There's some dispersal,
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but it's kind of grouped
around that average body type.
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Then that idea started to go away,
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and at the same time, digital technology --
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first radio, then television and the Internet --
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gave millions, or in some cases billions, of people
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a ticket to consume elite sports performance.
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The financial incentives and fame and glory
afforded elite athletes skyrocketed,
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and it tipped toward the tiny
upper echelon of performance.
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It accelerated the artificial
selection for specialized bodies.
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And if you plot a data point for these same
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two dozen sports today, it looks like this.
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The athletes' bodies have gotten
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much more different from one another.
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And because this chart looks like the charts
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that show the expanding universe,
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with the galaxies flying away from one another,
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the scientists who discovered it call it
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"The Big Bang of Body Types."
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In sports where height is prized, like basketball,
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the tall athletes got taller.
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In 1983, the National Basketball Association
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signed a groundbreaking agreement
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making players partners in the league,
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entitled to shares of ticket revenues
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and television contracts.
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Suddenly, anybody who could be an NBA player
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wanted to be,
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and teams started scouring the globe
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for the bodies that could
help them win championships.
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Almost overnight,
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the proportion of men in the NBA
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who are at least seven feet tall doubled
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to 10 percent.
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Today, one in 10 men in the NBA
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is at least seven feet tall,
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but a seven-foot-tall man is incredibly rare
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in the general population --
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so rare that if you know an American man
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between the ages of 20 and 40
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who is at least seven feet tall,
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there's a 17 percent chance
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he's in the NBA right now.
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(Laughter)
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That is, find six honest seven footers,
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one is in the NBA right now.
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And that's not the only way that
NBA players' bodies are unique.
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This is Leonardo da Vinci's "Vitruvian Man,"
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the ideal proportions,
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with arm span equal to height.
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My arm span is exactly equal to my height.
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Yours is probably very nearly so.
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But not the average NBA player.
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The average NBA player is a shade under 6'7",
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with arms that are seven feet long.
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Not only are NBA players ridiculously tall,
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they are ludicrously long.
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09:20
Had Leonardo wanted to draw
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the Vitruvian NBA Player,
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he would have needed a rectangle and an ellipse,
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not a circle and a square.
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So in sports where large size is prized,
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the large athletes have gotten larger.
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09:32
Conversely, in sports where
diminutive stature is an advantage,
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the small athletes got smaller.
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09:37
The average elite female gymnast
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shrunk from 5'3" to 4'9" on average
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over the last 30 years,
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all the better for their power-to-weight ratio
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and for spinning in the air.
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And while the large got larger
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and the small got smaller,
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the weird got weirder.
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The average length of the forearm
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of a water polo player in relation
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to their total arm got longer,
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all the better for a forceful throwing whip.
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And as the large got larger,
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small got smaller, and the weird weirder.
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10:03
In swimming, the ideal body type
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is a long torso and short legs.
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10:07
It's like the long hull of a canoe
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for speed over the water.
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10:11
And the opposite is advantageous in running.
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You want long legs and a short torso.
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And this shows in athletes' bodies today.
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Here you see Michael Phelps,
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the greatest swimmer in history,
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standing next to Hicham El Guerrouj,
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the world record holder in the mile.
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These men are seven inches different in height,
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but because of the body types
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advantaged in their sports,
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they wear the same length pants.
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10:33
Seven inches difference in height,
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these men have the same length legs.
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Now in some cases, the search for bodies
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10:39
that could push athletic performance forward
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10:41
ended up introducing into the competitive world
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populations of people that weren't
previously competing at all,
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like Kenyan distance runners.
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We think of Kenyans as being great marathoners.
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Kenyans think of the Kalenjin tribe
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as being great marathoners.
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The Kalenjin make up just 12 percent
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of the Kenyan population
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11:01
but the vast majority of elite runners.
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11:03
And they happen, on average,
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11:05
to have a certain unique physiology:
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11:07
legs that are very long
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1081
11:08
and very thin at their extremity,
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2538
11:10
and this is because they have their ancestry
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11:12
at very low latitude
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1435
11:13
in a very hot and dry climate,
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2415
11:16
and an evolutionary adaptation to that
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1890
11:17
is limbs that are very long
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958
11:18
and very thin at the extremity
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1519
11:20
for cooling purposes.
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1774
11:22
It's the same reason that a radiator has long coils,
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3029
11:25
to increase surface area compared to volume
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1842
11:27
to let heat out,
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1942
11:28
and because the leg is like a pendulum,
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1513
11:30
the longer and thinner it is at the extremity,
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1657
11:32
the more energy-efficient it is to swing.
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2779
11:34
To put Kalenjin running success in perspective,
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2594
11:37
consider that 17 American men in history
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2727
11:40
have run faster than two hours and 10 minutes
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2629
11:42
in the marathon.
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1289
11:44
That's a four-minute-and-58-second-per-mile pace.
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3047
11:47
Thirty-two Kalenjin men did that last October.
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2935
11:50
(Laughter)
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2094
11:52
That's from a source population the size
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700060
1821
11:54
of metropolitan Atlanta.
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2827
11:56
Still, even changing technology
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1574
11:58
and the changing gene pool in sports
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12:00
don't account for all of the changes in performance.
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2473
12:02
Athletes have a different mindset than they once did.
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12:05
Have you ever seen in a movie when someone gets
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1369
12:06
an electrical shock
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1272
12:08
and they're thrown across a room?
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2323
12:10
There's no explosion there.
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1571
12:11
What's happening when that happens is that
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1238
12:13
the electrical impulse is causing
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1462
12:14
all their muscle fibers to twitch at once,
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2130
12:16
and they're throwing themselves across the room.
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2594
12:19
They're essentially jumping.
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1897
12:21
That's the power
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1177
12:22
that's contained in the human body.
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1949
12:24
But normally we can't access nearly all of it.
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2227
12:26
Our brain acts as a limiter,
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2019
12:28
preventing us from accessing
all of our physical resources,
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2295
12:30
because we might hurt ourselves,
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1241
12:32
tearing tendons or ligaments.
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1692
12:33
But the more we learn about
how that limiter functions,
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3023
12:36
the more we learn how we can push it back
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1880
12:38
just a bit,
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1440
12:40
in some cases by convincing the brain
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2432
12:42
that the body won't be in mortal danger
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1774
12:44
by pushing harder.
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1810
12:46
Endurance and ultra-endurance sports
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1619
12:47
serve as a great example.
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1572
12:49
Ultra-endurance was once thought to be harmful
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2122
12:51
to human health,
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1415
12:52
but now we realize
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12:54
that we have all these traits
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1096
12:55
that are perfect for ultra-endurance:
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3104
12:58
no body fur and a glut of sweat glands
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2924
13:01
that keep us cool while running;
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1616
13:03
narrow waists and long legs compared to our frames;
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3400
13:06
large surface area of joints for shock absorption.
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2918
13:09
We have an arch in our foot that acts like a spring,
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2734
13:12
short toes that are better for pushing off
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2103
13:14
than for grasping tree limbs,
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1674
13:15
and when we run,
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1127
13:17
we can turn our torso and our shoulders
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1525
13:18
like this while keeping our heads straight.
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786433
2044
13:20
Our primate cousins can't do that.
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1483
13:22
They have to run like this.
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2310
13:24
And we have big old butt muscles
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2066
13:26
that keep us upright while running.
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2087
13:28
Have you ever looked at an ape's butt?
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796423
1718
13:30
They have no buns because they don't run upright.
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3005
13:33
And as athletes have realized
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1387
13:34
that we're perfectly suited for ultra-endurance,
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13:37
they've taken on feats
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1047
13:38
that would have been unthinkable before,
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2409
13:40
athletes like Spanish endurance racer Kílian Jornet.
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3903
13:44
Here's Kílian running up the Matterhorn.
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2000
13:46
(Laughter)
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1512
13:48
With a sweatshirt there tied around his waist.
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2609
13:50
It's so steep he can't even run here.
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1722
13:52
He's pulling up on a rope.
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1653
13:54
This is a vertical ascent
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1337
13:55
of more than 8,000 feet,
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2109
13:57
and Kílian went up and down
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1667
13:59
in under three hours.
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2381
14:01
Amazing.
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1919
14:03
And talented though he is,
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1189
14:04
Kílian is not a physiological freak.
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2824
14:07
Now that he has done this,
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1679
14:09
other athletes will follow,
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1911
14:11
just as other athletes followed
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1517
14:12
after Sir Roger Bannister
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1574
14:14
ran under four minutes in the mile.
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2138
14:16
Changing technology, changing genes,
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1627
14:18
and a changing mindset.
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2398
14:20
Innovation in sports,
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1784
14:22
whether that's new track surfaces
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1657
14:23
or new swimming techniques,
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1464
14:25
the democratization of sport,
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1870
14:27
the spread to new bodies
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1341
14:28
and to new populations around the world,
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2585
14:31
and imagination in sport,
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2053
14:33
an understanding of what the human body
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1436
14:34
is truly capable of,
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1781
14:36
have conspired to make athletes stronger,
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1892
14:38
faster, bolder,
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2523
14:40
and better than ever.
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1977
14:42
Thank you very much.
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2356
14:45
(Applause)
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3526

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
David Epstein - Sports science reporter
David Epstein is an investigative reporter who covers the wide-open space where sports, science and medicine overlap.

Why you should listen
David Epstein writes about the developing science around sport -- from performance-enhancing drugs to the lucky genetics that separate a professional athlete from a duffer. A science writer and longtime contributor to Sports Illustrated, he's helped break stories on steroids in baseball, fraudulently marketed health remedies, and big-money irregularities in "amateur" college football. In 2007, inspired by the death of a childhood friend, he wrote a moving exploration of the most common cause of sudden death in young athletes, a hard-to-diagnose heart irregularity known as HCM.
 
Now an investigative reporter at ProPublica, Epstein is the author of The Sports Gene, a book that explores the complex factors that make up a championship athlete. Is there such a thing as natural greatness, or can even extreme skills -- like the freaky-fast reaction of a hockey great -- be learned? Conversely, is the desire and will to master extreme skills something you're born with?
More profile about the speaker
David Epstein | Speaker | TED.com
THE ORIGINAL VIDEO ON TED.COM