Olympians Running With Moonboots
Many world records are being broken at this year's Olympics in Tokyo.
Track and Field events world records usually last longer than other events. Because running and jumping have been something practiced before humans even evolved (opposed to more complex sports like rowing), generational athletes' abilities are quite comparable. Jessie Owens's 10.2s 100 yard dash is pretty comparable to today's track standards.
This graphic The Economist has put together shows how much faster track records have been broken in this Olympics compared to other sports. The rate at which the records are broken used to be comparable to the rate field events were broken, but due to the new technology implemented in Tokyo, the old longstanding records are falling fast.
This is due to the Olympics being much more lenient on technological advances with track spikes and the actual track.
The track is bouncy and as the Tik Tok above tells you, so are the shoes. I'm starting to wonder if it is all too much bounce. At what point does making everything bouncier, with Nike's new technologies and the bouncy track, does everyone start to look like the guys on the moon landing.
I think the Olympics has been way too lenient and going to reward inferior runners in the course of history. Usain Bolt would have probably broken 9 seconds under these new shoes and conditions. Some wack runner that's probably half-robot is going to break the world record and we are all going to call him the fastest man alive meanwhile the one-in-a-lifetime runner like Usain Bolt will be cast to the wayside. This is way worse than the sharkskin swimsuits.
Oh by the way listen to Pardon My Take today it's amazing. Special guest Mike Tannenbaum, Football Is Back, and Mt Rushmore Of Pizza Toppings. Must listen.
I gotta go