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Be it doping in sport, hot topics like Caster Semenya or Oscar Pistorius, or the dehydration myth, we try to translate the science behind sports and sports performance. Consider a donation if you like what you see here!
August, 2011 // Posts published in August, 2011
Bolt’s false start and Blake’s “twitch” – the actual start block data explained
This is a final post on the Bolt false start controversy, since as you’ll all know, there was some talk that Yohan Blake in Lane 6 (immediately to Bolt’s right) might have “twitched” while in the “set” position, and that perhaps he should have received the false start, that he “pushed” Bolt into the false […]
IAAF 2011 World Champs – Rudisha delivers and Kirani James “arrives”
Day 3 of the IAAF World Championships brought more success for Kenya, in the form of David Rudisha’s anticipated gold in the men’s 800m. It was their third gold of these championships, but may be tempered slightly by the result of the Women’s steeple where they would have been hoping for another gold, but left […]
The Blake-Bolt false start dispute
So it may be a new day, but perhaps not surprisingly, the debate about the men’s 100m final has continued. But with one unexpected twist. Rather than talking about the “what if Bolt had not false started?”, this morning I woke to the question of “Should Blake, and not Bolt, have been given the false […]
Day 2: False starts and flying finishes
So if Day 1 produced dominance for Kenya, Day 2 produced drama. It was, in the day’s two track finals, a day full of drama. It began with an incredible final lap sprint in the men’s 10,000m final, and ended with the disqualification of Usain Bolt. It was that disqualification that will hog the headlines tomorrow, […]
IAAF 2011 World Champs – Kenya’s day
The day 1 medal table at the IAAF World Championships makes for extra-ordinary reading. There’s only one team on it – Kenya. It a display of unparalleled dominance, Kenya took every single medal on offer. It helps that the medals were available in the longest distance running events, the marathon and the 10,000m events for […]
Pistorius: the “12 sec advantage” and mechanical superiority
“We conclude that the moment in athletic history when engineered limbs outperform biological limbs has already passed” That was the concluding statement from the first of a series of back-and-forth articles that were published in the Journal of Applied Physiolgy in November 2009. It was written, remarkably, by two of the scientists who had in […]
The scientific evidence for an advantage for Oscar Pistorius
We may as well jump straight in with the continuation of the scientific summary of the research done on 400m sprinter Oscar Pistorius. Yesterday, , done at the request of the IAAF in Germany, found that Pistorius used 25% less oxygen during a simulated sprint, and that his running mechanics were vastly different to those […]
The scientific interpretation of Oscar Pistorius research
The possibility that Oscar Pistorius has an advantage from his carbon-fibre blades is a topic that I honestly wasn’t going to cover on this site. For one thing, I’ve covered it already, dating back to 2007 when the story first emerged. And secondly, it inspires in people a reaction that buries the scientific question/debate in […]
Training, talent, 10000 hours and the genes
An overview of the importance of genetic factors in determining sport, leading to the definition that training is nothing more than the realization of genetic potential. Both are equally vital.