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July 18, 2008
What are our limits?
Here in the UK at the moment there is a very interesting debate going on about drugs in sport. Dwain Chambers, arguably the UK's best sprinter, was found guilty of doping in 2003. As a consequence he was given a lifetime ban from competing in the Olympics.
He recently appealed to the civilian courts to have that ban overturned, but today that appeal was refused. People have been arguing for weeks whether he should be able to compete or not. I'm not particularly interested in that. Drugs in sport are a reality. Accept it and move on.
What I'm more interested in is the limits of the human body. What I would like to know is what is the absolute maximum speed that a human body could achieve. Because there must be a limit. I think its plausible to say that no human could ever run 100 metres in say 3 seconds. But how close could they get to that mark? What is the absolute maximum distance that a human could throw a javalin?
This is what interests me. And to that end, what I would like to see is an Olympic Games where drug use was encouraged. There are some athletes who will take the drugs and pay the price in terms of their long term physical health in order for the moment of glory. So why not take advantage of that. Why can't we encourage them and explore the boundaries of the human physical condition?
