ABSTRACT

A casual review of a sports almanac or today’s news reveals a montage of records being broken, technological improvements emerging, political events affecting sports and, unfortunately, the use of performance-enhancing drugs. We wonder where performances are headed. The purpose of this section is to examine certain sports events in a holistic way so as to arrange the montage of facts into a coherent picture. We shall examine how the laws of physics provide insight into those factors by which performances may be improved. We shall examine the underlying political events and technological breakthroughs that strongly influenced performances. Which events and performances shall we examine? If we formulate a taxonomy

of sports events (Stefani, 1999), we find two important descriptors: the evaluation

method by which a winner is determined and the manner of interaction between an athlete and the opponent. The winning athlete may be evaluated by subjective judging (as in boxing and diving), by arbitrary scoring (as in basketball and shooting), and by unambiguous measurement (as in swimming and running). Competitors interact in the only three ways that two separate objects can interact: by direct, indirect, and independent movement. Competitors interact directly in what may be termed a combat sport, wherein the goal is to control the opponent as in boxing and wrestling. Competitors interact indirectly, in what can be termed an object sport, in that the competitor tries to control some object as in basketball and soccer. Competitors may only have incidental contact in what may be termed an independent sport, such as swimming and rowing, wherein the competitor tries to control the competitor’s own self to succeed. The performance of an athlete in an independent sport is not directly influenced by the opponent as in a combat sport and an object sport. Further, those sports decided by unambiguous measurement provide a better comparison over time than those sports decided by subjective judging. This section focuses on those sports in which the competitor is evaluated by unambiguous measurement in independent events. We shall therefore examine running, jumping, swimming, rowing, and speed skating events. What performance data shall we examine?World records provide a limited amount

of evolutionary information. World records are set under ideal conditions, at irregular intervals and are, by definition, always improving (see for example Chapter 2 of this volume). No information is provided when there may be a downturn in performance due to warfare, for example. We shall examine Olympic winning performances for the sports just mentioned, because Olympic competition occurs at regular intervals and winning performances represent the state-of-the-art as of that time. Those winning performances provide a picture into the past and perspective for predicting the future.