Street Legal Performance-Enhancing Technology

The bad news, according to this piece in the L.A. Times, is that today’s top athletes appear to be approaching the peak physiological performance for the species. The good news is that they have been approaching that peak for centuries, and will continue to chip away at records, although in increasingly smaller increments. The Times quotes Alan Nevill, a statistician at the University of Wolverton in England, who warns that the sports whose records are most unlikely to change are those in which the athlete has to power his or her own body weight — running,
walking, high jumping — without the buoyancy of water or the aid of
equipment. Records for sports in which the equipment is still being improved–think lighter bicycles and waveless swimming pools– are most vulnerable. Technology, the piece reminds us, is also helping us get much more from training. Better cameras, for example, make it possible to spot inefficiencies of motion that can waste time and energy. And biological research is producing (legal) sports drinks with an optimal mix of carbohydrate and protein that can be designed by different formula for different athletes. Read more about performance-enhancing technology that won’t get you tossed out of the game.