Two questions:
1. Seems crazy to me that the jumping records have not been beaten in 30 years, what’s up with that?
2. Is this graph men’s (or all humans)? I’m curious if a version for women only would show similar trends
The swimming step change and plateau ~2009 is due to high tech polyurethane suits that were banned a year later
Nicely put together!
My personal non-scientific theories on why records have kept progressing over time:
* Every athlete today benefits from the cumulative knowledge and experience of athletes that came before them. Studying techniques, training methods, etc. Someone in 1970s had access to far less knowledge about their sport.
* In the 70s, strength and conditioning as a science was in its infancy. Nowadays its a very well developed field, strength training (which is helpful for most sports) is taken very seriously by athletes while as in the past it was nowhere even close to what it is today, often athletes didn’t really do strength training at all as some feared that more muscle might make them slower. Most athletes go to the gym these days.
* Nutrition as a science has also developed.
* Being able to watch videos of yourself in a very technical sport can be very helpful for refining technique, obviously such technology is quite new.
You can see how absolutely bonkers Bob Beamon’s long jump record was here. Beat the previous record by almost two feet and still the second longest jump ever 56 years (!) later.
Mike Powell the goat.
As the times a decreasing, the graphs should display a downward trajectory. Interesting data, but poorly presented.
[deleted]
What they mean by “humans could run faster in all fours”?
That is for real a nice graphic!
It’s pretty wild that Usain Bolt was able to maintain pretty much the same speed for the 200m record that he had for the 100m record. 19.19s/2 = 9.595 per 100m. His 100m time is 9.58. That’s insane.
Isn’t 50m in the pool generally regarded as the equivalent of the 100m dash on track? And does the swimming reflect freestyle, or butterfly?
For those wondering who the insane long jumper was that slayed 2nd and 3rd competitors prior to 1991:
“Bob Beamon held the long jump world record with 8.90 meters: he set this record at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics”
I can do 100m in faster than 46s and I’m fat and old
I saw the thumbnail and thought, “what sort of political compass meme is this”
Bolt with back to back records 4 days apart.
What’s incredible is his 200m is the same pace as his 100m.
![[OC] Sprinting, Swimming and Jumping Ratified Human Record Progression](https://www.europesays.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/vpzmyd80sued1-1200x1024.jpeg)
17 comments
**Tools:**
* Python ([paulgalea.com/Infographics/Record%20Progression%20Infographic%20Information.txt](http://paulgalea.com/Infographics/Record%20Progression%20Infographic%20Information.txt))
* Adobe Illustrator
**Sources (viewed online June 2024):**
* [ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4928019](http://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4928019)
* [enhanced.org/science-is-real](http://enhanced.org/science-is-real)
* [worldathletics.org/records/all-time-toplists](http://worldathletics.org/records/all-time-toplists)
* [worldaquatics.com/swimming/rankings](http://worldaquatics.com/swimming/rankings)
* 2009 100m record with unapproved swimsuit removed: [telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/swimming/5604748/Alain-Bernard-stripped-of-100m-freestyle-world-record-because-of-swimsuit.html](http://telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/swimming/5604748/Alain-Bernard-stripped-of-100m-freestyle-world-record-because-of-swimsuit.html)
* Missing 1999 200m record added: [archive.org/details/swimnewsn252/page/5/mode/1up?view=theater](http://archive.org/details/swimnewsn252/page/5/mode/1up?view=theater)
Two questions:
1. Seems crazy to me that the jumping records have not been beaten in 30 years, what’s up with that?
2. Is this graph men’s (or all humans)? I’m curious if a version for women only would show similar trends
The swimming step change and plateau ~2009 is due to high tech polyurethane suits that were banned a year later
Nicely put together!
My personal non-scientific theories on why records have kept progressing over time:
* Every athlete today benefits from the cumulative knowledge and experience of athletes that came before them. Studying techniques, training methods, etc. Someone in 1970s had access to far less knowledge about their sport.
* In the 70s, strength and conditioning as a science was in its infancy. Nowadays its a very well developed field, strength training (which is helpful for most sports) is taken very seriously by athletes while as in the past it was nowhere even close to what it is today, often athletes didn’t really do strength training at all as some feared that more muscle might make them slower. Most athletes go to the gym these days.
* Nutrition as a science has also developed.
* Being able to watch videos of yourself in a very technical sport can be very helpful for refining technique, obviously such technology is quite new.
You can see how absolutely bonkers Bob Beamon’s long jump record was here. Beat the previous record by almost two feet and still the second longest jump ever 56 years (!) later.
Mike Powell the goat.
As the times a decreasing, the graphs should display a downward trajectory. Interesting data, but poorly presented.
[deleted]
What they mean by “humans could run faster in all fours”?
That is for real a nice graphic!
It’s pretty wild that Usain Bolt was able to maintain pretty much the same speed for the 200m record that he had for the 100m record. 19.19s/2 = 9.595 per 100m. His 100m time is 9.58. That’s insane.
Isn’t 50m in the pool generally regarded as the equivalent of the 100m dash on track? And does the swimming reflect freestyle, or butterfly?
For those wondering who the insane long jumper was that slayed 2nd and 3rd competitors prior to 1991:
“Bob Beamon held the long jump world record with 8.90 meters: he set this record at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics”
I can do 100m in faster than 46s and I’m fat and old
I saw the thumbnail and thought, “what sort of political compass meme is this”
Bolt with back to back records 4 days apart.
What’s incredible is his 200m is the same pace as his 100m.
Jumping really hit its….apex in 2009….