The time lords – measurement and performance in sprinting
The modern Olympic Games were founded by Baron Pierre de Coubertin in 1896, with the intention of improving health and education, promoting world peace, and encouraging fair and equal competition. Such Victorian values, although inherently ennobling have little resonance in modern sport.
The motto of the modern Olympic games—Citius, Altius, Fortius (swifter, higher, stronger)—illustrates how winning, not just participation, is just as important now as it was 2500 years ago in ancient Greece. Then, as now, winning athletes were treated like heroes. It is no wonder, then, that athletes have used any means at their disposal to improve their performance.
In some cases, it is the evolution of technology that alters the sport rather than the athlete adopting ergogenic aids. In sport, there exists a balance between technology and tradition. The ruling bodies either allow technology to advance a sport (such as in the pole vault with the advent of flexible poles or full body swimming suits to reduce friction) or use it to under-engineer a sport (such as modifying the javelin to reduce throwing distances). As long as the same technology is available to all competitors at the same time, then it comes down to the ability and the skill of the athlete. Problems arise when technology is available exclusively to only one group of athletes. …
