Why Do Some Olympic Records Get Broken?
The 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio are just around the corner. How many of those medals are likely to be new Olympic or even World Records, and how many records are expected to remain untouched?
The 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio are just around the corner. The first medals will be awarded in swimming, cycling, and weight lifting events as early as Saturday. How many of those medals are likely to be new Olympic or even World Records, and how many records are expected to remain untouched?
Leading up to the Summer Games, on July 22, 2016 at the Muller Anniversary Games in London, Kendra Harrison of the US broke the world record for the 100 meter hurdles by 0.01 seconds. The previous record of 12.21 seconds, set by Yordanka Donkova of Bulgaria, endured for nearly 28 years. The record was older than the 23-year-old Harrison herself!
So why do some records stand the test of time while others get updated much more frequently? In other words, how can athletes show continuous, even if gradual, improvements in some athletic feats while showing only sporadic improvements in others?
The Longest Held Olympic Record
The longest held Olympic record belongs to long jumper Bob Beamon. In the Summer Games in 1968 in Mexico, he crushed the previous record of 8.35 meters (27 feet 4.75 inches) by jumping 8.9 meters (or 29 feet 2.5 inches). That is by far the largest increase in the record since reliable record keeping began in 1901. The second longest jump in Olympic history is more than 7 inches shorter: Carl Lewis jumped 8.72 meters at the Games in Seoul in 1988.
Beamon still holds the Olympic record for the long jump, although the World Record was taken by Mike Powell who cleared 8.95 meters at the 1991 World Championships in Tokyo. Beamon’s Olympic Record for the long jump is a whopping 48 years old and even Powell’s world record is now 25 years old.
Why Do Some Olympic Records Get Broken?
During the London Summer Games in 2012, seven Olympic records and four world records were set in 47 track and field events. Similarly, in the Beijing Summer Games in 2008 only five records were set in the same number of events. However, more Olympic records (a total of 11) and more world records (8) were set in the smaller number of 34 swimming events at the London Games.
Thus, clearly the kind of sport involved in the competition affects the cadence at which records are broken. Swimmers’ times can improve steadily as technology steadily improves. They now wear sleeker, more aerodynamic swimsuits and swim in calmer pools. Alternatively, there is very little a runner can do, for example, to improve their speed via technology.
Accessibility can also have an effect. To recreate a game time environment, swimmers must have access to an Olympic pool which is not always possible for competitors from poorer countries. There are very few limitations, however, on where a competitor can train for a running event. The more accessible a sport, the harder it can be to stand out.
That doesn’t mean track doesn’t have its standouts. Current fastest man in the world, Usain Bolt of Jamaica, currently holds the records for men’s 100 meter, 200 meter, and 4 x 100 meter relay races. At the Beijing Olympic Summer Games in 2008, he set a world record when he ran 100 meters in 9.69 seconds. (I’m pretty sure it took me 9.69 seconds just to write that sentence.) Just one year later at the World Championships, Bolt crushed his own record with a time of 9.58 seconds. His improvement of 0.11 seconds, made after only a year’s time, is the largest margin of improvement ever recorded for the 100 meter race for as long as electronic time keeping has been used.
Bolt has been quoted as saying, “A lot of people, a lot of legends, have come before me, but this is my time.” So how does he do it? Bolt is obviously very strong, physically fit and has great technique, but competitors and coaches alike have cited his incredibly long legs and thus long stride as key factors in his success. Bolt is 6 feet 5 inches tall and his long legs, even when moving at the same speed as his competitors, provide him with an additional ~20 cm with each stride.
Conditions like weather, altitude, and wind speed also play a role in when records get set.
Conditions like weather, altitude, and wind speed also play a role in when records get set. Many records for track and field events will cite the wind speed at the time the record was made, for comparison purposes. One study in the Canadian Journal of Physics found that tail winds up to 2 meters per second can increase a finishing time in the 200 meter sprint by 0.09 – 0.14 seconds. The same study observed that higher altitudes also assisted in lowering times, with 200 meter times falling by 0.3 seconds at altitudes over 2,000 meters.
There were, unfortunately, also large doping scandals in the 1980s that only came to light later. Suspicion still surrounds some athletes from that era and some long standing records set around that time have been called into question if subsequent efforts continue to fall far short of matching what those athletes could do.
Although gradual (and continuous) improvement in swimming records is fairly common, there are some long held records in swimming. The world record time for the women’s 800-meter freestyle race was 8:16.22, set by Janet Evans of the US in 1989 at the Pan Pacific Championships. Her record held for nearly 20 years before it was broken by Rebecca Adlington of Great Britain who shaved off ~2 seconds in the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008. The record was then set by Katie Ledecky of the US in 2013 who has continued to beat her own time in each year since. She most recently set the world record in January 2016 with a time of 8:06.68 seconds.
A similar history tracks the world record for the women’s 1500-meter freestyle race. Janet Evans set a record in 1988 which endured until 2007 when it was broken by Kate Ziegler. Katie Ledecky earned the title as the record holder in 2013 at the World Championships in Barcelona and has since beat her own record four times in the three years since.
What Records Will Be Broken in the Rio 2016 Summer Games?
This year, as every Olympic Games year, there is a lot of speculation over which athletes will go home not just with medals but with claims to the world record in their sport.
Unfortunately, Kendra Harrison, the woman who broke the 100 meter hurdles record, will not complete in Rio because she did not qualify for the US Olympic Team in trials. However, check out the Teen Vogue article on 16 US women who are competing in Rio who have already set world records in their sports. The list includes Simone Biles from gymnastics, Jessica Long, Missy Franklin, Katie Ledecky from swimming, and 18 year-old high jumper Vashti Cunningham.
Also competing in Rio will be Caster Semenya of South Africa, a middle distance runner who won a silver medal in the women’s 800 meter race in the 2012 Summer Games, finishing in 1:57.23 seconds just 1 second behind the leader. In 2016, Semenya became the first person to win all three of the 400 meter, 800 meter, and 1500 meter races at the South African National Championships, events which took place within ~4 hours of one another! In the recent past, Semneya was subjected to forced gender testing when complaints about the status of her gender were raised amid the running community. Although the results were never made public, none of her medals were ever stripped from her. Many who support her fear a similar backlash should she break a world record in Rio.
Until next time, this is Sabrina Stierwalt with Ask Science’s Quick and Dirty Tips for helping you make sense of science. You can become a fan of Ask Science on Facebook or follow me on Twitter, where I’m @QDTeinstein. If you have a question that you’d like to see on a future episode, send me an email at everydayeinstein@quickanddirtytips.comcreate new email.
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About the Author
Dr Sabrina Stierwalt earned a Ph.D. in Astronomy & Astrophysics from Cornell University and is now a Professor of Physics at Occidental College.
