From here: http://www.physorg.com/news185738503.html
There’s some interesting points raised, regarding inherent genetic limitations, the greater involvement of athletes from a wider talent pool from across the world, and the influx of both drugs and “technological solutions” into sports.
Most interesting:
“Future limits to athletic performance will be determined less and less by the innate physiology of the athlete, and more and more by scientific and technological advances and by the still-evolving judgment on where to draw the line between what is ‘natural’ and what is artificially enhanced,” [Berthelot] wrote in his paper, published in 2008 in the British Medical Bulletin.
If this is true, then it’s going to mean some very obvious – and depending on who you are, troubling – implications in the coming years, namely in the area of performance-enhancing chemistry and gene-therapy.
Of course, this says it all:
But performance based on science, not natural ability, may have less public appeal. And athletes who never improve may no longer hold our interest.
That’s always the catch-22, ain’t it?
Now, if they'd just make PED's (see steroids) legal, then everything would be fine and dandy.
Single ply is the new raw!! hahaha
"But performance based on science, not natural ability, may have less public appeal. And athletes who never improve may no longer hold our interest."
Agree its a catch-22.
However, the first sentence should be a perception that should be changed amongst 1st worlders. WHY should technological improvements be framed in such a bad light? Because anybody that can have the improvements applied on, can perform at the same level (leaving arm-chair audience members going 'pfwah, I could do that..')? Or is it a perception of a division between the haves and the have nots (poor Ahmed from kenya can't afford the designer steroids that Bolshevik from russia can)?
Matt I know this is off topic, but what are your thoughts on exercises which claim to target separate portions of the chest? I am of course talking about things like the incline BP or even dips.
I have a forum for questions like that:
http://www.ampedtraining.com/community
There's an idea that without world records, competition is boring.
Strangely this doesn't apply to all the various kinds of football and basketball.
Competition is inherently interesting. "But he shaved 0.002 seconds off the world best time!" is something for journalists to shout when they don't really know about the sport they're reporting on.
And of course people are just fine with some forms of artificial improvement, e.g. vision correction.