David Epstein's Lecture
Ted Talk
“Are Athletes Really Getting Faster, Better, Stronger?”
In the last century there was a big progress of our athletes. So, there is a very simple question, and yet a very complex one: “Are athletes really getting faster, better, stronger?” Many people think that the nowadays athletes are much better than the ones in the past, but this is not exactly true.
First Reason
First of all, the technology has gone through an amazing progress for the last century. Thanks to this improvement, the conditions of all kind of sports got better.
Second Reason
The Technology
In 1936 Jesse Owens had the world record of the 100 meters run. If he had raced in the world championship of 2013 he would lose to Usain Bolt in 4 meters which is a lot. But Jesse Owens didn’t have the conditions that Usain Bolt had. If he would run today, with better conditions like Bolt, he would be only one step behind him. All this huge difference is because of the technology improvement.
Body Type
Almost overnight the number of men in the NBA who are 2.10 meters tall doubled itself. Today, 1 to 10 men in the NBA is at least 2.10 meters tall. So, in sports which tall is advantage the tall got taller. In sports which small is advantage the small got smaller. So the tall got taller, and small got smaller, and so on in all kind of sports.
Third Reason
I Chose This Subject Because...
Before this talk I have thought that the nowadays athletes are really better than the athletes in the past. I have seen their achievements and the huge differences towards the old ones. I assumed that mankind is actually getting better.
During Epstein’s talk I understood that I was wrong. The mankind hasn’t been improved. We haven’t got faster or better. We, you and I, the people of the world haven’t changed. The external parameters have changed: technology, body types and even our mindset. So actually the external parameters were improved, and by that our results got much better.
The presentor was David Epstein, who asked this interesting questition in Ted Talks. In the end David said that Changing technology, changing athlete’s bodies and changing mindset. Imagination in sport and understanding what the human body is really capable of have made athletes stronger, faster, bolder, and better than ever.