Stejerean Cristian-Pavel

Opinion Essay, “Are athletes really getting faster, better, stronger?”

Are athletes really getting faster, better, stronger? This can be a complex question as we
must consider that it is not just one factor that comes into play with this. Athletes today
benefit from more sophisticated training techniques as well as an improved understanding of
physiology. Athletes today benefit from more sophisticated training techniques as well as an
improved understanding of physiology. Award-winning sports journalist and author of the
book, “The Sports Gene,” David Epstein, provides an inciteful presentation about the factors
that have played a part in the record-breaking milestones of athletes over the past century. He
outlines the following:

Changing technology
He starts off by comparing runners, “In 2013 at the World Championships the 100-meter-
dasher Usain Bolt beat the world record set by Jesse Owens in 1936 by 14 feet. Taking into
consideration that Usain Bolt has been starting his races by propelling himself out of well-
engineered blocks designed to help him to travel as fast as humanly possible. Contrastingly,
Owens ran on cinders which obviously took away energy from his legs and running on
cinders is 1.5 percent slower than running on a modern track. We now have improved
technology such as more aerodynamic bikes, track surfaces, lighter shoes, high-performance
swimsuits, and so much more so as you can imagine, today’s technology has a significant
impact on the improvement of making athletes faster, better, and stronger!
Epstein then goes into the second factor which is ‘changing genes’ “in sports where large size
is prized, the large athletes have gotten larger. Conversely, in sports where diminutive stature
is an advantage, the small athletes got smaller. The average elite female gymnast shrunk from
5’3″ to 4’9″ on average over the last 30 years, all the better for their power-to-weight ratio
and for spinning in the air. And while the large got larger and the small got smaller, the
average length of the forearm of a water polo player in relation to their total arm got longer,
all the better for a forceful throwing whip.” This is quite fascinating to me; I did not expect
that the sport we do impacts that big of a change within our genes.
The last factor then that Epstein talks about is the psychological, the mindset that we have.
“The brain acts as a limiter, preventing us from accessing all our resources to prevent us from
hurting ourselves,” says Epstein. “The more we learn how that limiter functions, the more we
can learn how to push it back.” Epstein discusses how motivation can push us to put in the
effort required physically and emotionally too! I definitely agree with this as this is a huge
factor in my opinion.

Taking everything into account, I do genuinely feel that the talk Epstein gave, had
exceptionally good points in it and to answer the big question “are athletes really getting
faster, better, and stronger” Yes they most definitely are as I have stated my reasons why
previously and quoted Epstein.