Watching skiers and boarders careen down the icy slopes at the Winter Olympics, I’ve been thrilled and amazed.
The skill, athleticism and sheer guts of today’s athletes can leave you breathless.
So I was taken aback when I read a recent that reported many sports scientists believe human athletic performance has peaked, and only cheating or technological advances will result in a rash of new world records.
According to the story, Mark Denny, a marine sciences and biomechanics professor at Stanford, says athletic achievement is constrained by basic biomechanics. According to his statistical models, the maximum attainable speed for male sprinters is only a few percentage points greater than what has already been observed. Women have already reached their top speed, by his calculations.
This means we humans have about reached our limit in terms of higher, faster, stronger.
The article didn’t mention skills such as hitting a baseball or shooting a basketball. I’m left wondering how much better athletes can get in those disciplines, or if we have are peaking there, too.
Trivia time
Who was the first athlete to officially run under 10 seconds in the 100-meter dash? (Answer below).
Polling
Friday’s “Lunch Special” poll asked readers about Tiger Woods’ much ballyhooed public statement. Judging by your response, Tiger didn’t come across too well. With 2,176 votes cast, 30.33 percent of you thought his statement was “contrived and scripted.” Just 15 percent of you thought Wood’s message was “sincere and heartfelt.”
Reader’s rant
Woody predicts broncos to win 5 games.
Woody changes prediction when we hit 6 wins.
Broncos go in the tank.
Woody ignores nuggets and they thrive.
Woody hails nuggets as championship contenders.
You are kryptonite, Woody
— Patrick R, posting on that the Nuggets are championship-bound.
Blog spot
From sunny Tucson, us that only one Rockies player is listed among its posted candidates to lead the majors in home runs. And that player is listed as a 100-1 shot, lower than 27 other players.
In case you missed it
Johnny Damon, the former Red Sox/former Yankee is now a Detroit Tiger. Damon will officially sign a one-year, $8 million deal today.
Damon probably could have still been wearing Yankee pinstripes, except that he and agent Scott Boras overplayed their hand.
According to the Yankees, Boras told general manager Brian Cashman that Damon would not take a penny less than $13 million per year for two years.
“We believed him,” Cashman told the New York Times.
Boras, of course, said the Yankees kept throwing him curveballs. Who knows the truth? Bottom line, Damon is Motown-bound.
This day in sports
It was 30 years ago that Team USA beat the Soviet Union 4-3 en route to the gold medal. Also on this date, Wilt Chamberlain set an NBA record with 34 free-throw attempts in game.
Trivia answer
Jim Hines of the United States was the first to run under 10 seconds, doing so in the 1968 Summer Olympics with a world-record time of 9.95 seconds.
Patrick Saunders: 303-954-1720 or psaunders@denverpost.com
