ABSTRACT
Analyses of the emergence of modern sport have emphasized the signifi- cance of the historical process of rationalization. Particular attention has been drawn to the application of scientific knowledge about the sources and determinants of human performance to the study of sporting performance. In his account of the evolution of sports science over the course of the twentieth century, Hoberman has shown how scientific interest in the “biological wonders of the human body,” initially divorced from any concern with practical applications, was transformed into “today’s attempts by teams of athletes, trainers, doctors and scientists to produce record-breaking performances.” 1 Additional elements of the historical analysis of rationalization are provided by Waddington in his examination of the development of sports medicine as an instance of the application of scientific knowledge to improving human performance. Waddington locates the acceleration of this process in the post–World War II era, marked by rising nationalism, leading countries to place emphasis on performance in international competition as a way to enhance visibility and prestige, and increased commercialism, leading to greater material rewards from sporting performance. 2 The social bases of the rationalization process have been extensively examined in Beamish and Ritchie’s analysis of contemporary high-performance sport. 3 They argue that advances in scientific understanding of human capacity have yielded a new paradigm of performance.
The new paradigm of sport science is dominated by an instrumental, technological rationality where the results of experimental research from around the globe concerning performance enhancement are placed directly at the finger tips of applied sport scientists, coaches, and athletes as they explore and experiment with training techniques, and methods to enhance athletic performance. Athletes, professionals in sport medicine, and coaches now find themselves at the centre of a well-funded, high stakes drive to push human performance to its outer limits. 4
