Sprinting at the Olympics is a thrilling event that showcases the pinnacle of human speed and athleticism. From the explosive starts to the photo-finish endings, sprinting captivates audiences around the world. But what goes on behind the scenes to make these races possible? Let’s dive into the world of sprinting at the Olympics.

Listen to this episode of The MOVEMENT Movement about the problem with Olympic sprinters.

Here are some of the beneficial topics covered on this week’s show:

– How the evolution of sprinting technology has transformed race outcomes, highlighting the role of innovation in athletic performance.

– Why there is an ongoing struggle between sprinters and anti-doping organizations.

– How watching unfamiliar events at the Olympics allows viewers to step out of their comfort zones and explore new events from a fresh perspective.

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Episode Transcript

Steven Sashen:

What does a competitive Masters All-American sprinter, me, think about the sprinting at the Olympics? Well, Let’s find out on today’s rant on The MOVEMENT Movement, the podcast for people who want to know the truth about what it takes to have a happy, healthy, strong body starting feet first, those things at the end of your legs and where we break down the propaganda, the mythology, and sometimes the outright lies you may have been told about what it takes to run or walk or play or do yoga or CrossFit or anything you like to do, and to do those things enjoyably and efficiently and effectively. And did I say enjoyably? Of course I did. I say it every time, because that’s the most important thing. If you’re not doing something you love, you’re not going to keep doing it. So, find something you enjoy doing, maybe find a friend and make it even more enjoyable.

I’m Steven Sashen, co-founder and Chief Barefoot Officer here at zeroshoes.com and .co.uk and .eu and we call this The MOVEMENT Movement because we, and that includes you, more about that in a second, are creating a movement about natural movement, letting your body do what it is made to do, not getting in the way of doing that. And the way you can be involved is simple. Go to www.jointhemovementmovement.com, nothing you needed to join. There’s no secret handshake, no money involved. That’s just the website that we got and it’s where you can find all the places you can engage with us on social media, all the places you can download the podcast if you want to get it somewhere else from where you got it this time and of course, all the previous episodes of which there are quite a few. In short, if you want to be part of the tribe, just subscribe and then give us a thumbs up and a like hit the bell icon on YouTube and do all those things that you know how to do.

Okay, so Olympics are in full swing as of the time that I’m writing this, and just the other day, Noah Lyles won the 100 meters and people have been asking me, “What do you think?” Well, I’ve got a couple thoughts, really three. The first is I find it funny that… Maybe four, actually. I find it funny that Noah’s going around being super, super psyched about winning when he won by literally an inch, maybe less. In fact, if Omega, the people who do all the timing things for the Olympics didn’t deploy a new camera system that shoots 40,000 frames per second, there’s a decent chance this race would’ve been deemed a tie, so there’s that.

Let’s look at a second thing though. I mean, first of all, the race was amazing. A lot of people all bunched up at the end, which was great. When I was in Berlin when Usain Bolt set the world record of 9.58, which is going to be my next point, the amount of space between him and Tyson Gay and then between Tyson Gay, and I’m pretty sure Asafa Powell was so great that when I was sitting at the 70-meter mark, I thought it must’ve been a false start, because there was no way the 100 meters would be that spread out, which brings me to Usain Bolt. So, everyone’s going on and on and on about the time of this race, it was a 9.79 for Noah. It was a 9.786, I believe doesn’t really matter. Point is Usain Bolt’s world record 9.58, and no one has come anywhere close to that in the last, oh God, that was 15 years ago when he set the record, not even him. So, this is an interesting thing to ponder, what happened?

And another thing, look, I am not making any assumptions. I’m not making any statements. I’m not saying what I’m about to say is true. I’m literally just asking this as a question. Every Olympic and world champion sprinter that I’m aware of, I’ve seen this reported somewhere, and I wish I had the actual stats on this to show it to you or a link to it, has at some point tested positive. Usain Bolt hasn’t, even though everybody else on his Jamaican team has, or at least all the top guys did. So, that’s intriguing. Carl Lewis, there are some people who say that when he won in ’88 in Seoul, tested positive for a bunch of stimulants, but then said he had a head cold and they went, “Okay.” Ben Johnson in ’88 said that he tested positive for something that he didn’t like taking because he had tried it, wasn’t a big fan of it.

He also claimed that there was an American who had doped him, put something in his water. When that person, I won’t mention his name, was asked on a 30 by 30 episode on ESPN, “Did you in fact dope Ben Johnson like he claims?” The guy’s response not on camera was, “Yeah, maybe I did. Maybe I didn’t.” Which is an interesting way to respond to a question like that. Here’s the third one that I want to highlight. There are people that have analyzed Jesse Owens and looked at his joint mechanics and joint angles and speed of joint movements, et cetera, and said that if he was running on a modern track surface that he’d be second to Usain Bolt, certainly running under 10 seconds for the 100, and he was running on a crappy track surface. Bring something up. Actually, I’m going to jump in. Here’s the fourth thing that I just realized. A lot of people love to say, “Hey, what shoes were they wearing?”

Oh boy, let me just jump to point number four or actually point three is it ain’t about the shoes. Even Eliud Kipchoge, the guy who ran the sub-two-hour marathon had articles that came out about him where he was quoted in the headline as saying, “It wasn’t the shoes, it was my legs.” If you look for those articles, you’re not going to find them anymore. There may be some company that thought not a good look for them when they’re claiming it was all about the shoes. I will not mention that company’s name, but I can’t wait to ride my bikey home from work today. And last but not least, when it comes to this race and how good it was or wasn’t, frankly. In 1971, there was a guy named Delano Meriwether who is a physician. He was the first Black student admitted to Duke University Medical School.

He was the only Black student in his four years that he was there. He liked to go to the track and burn off steam because racism, and he became a world-class sprinter. In fact, in 1971, he set the world record for the 100 yard dash, and that record still stands, because after he did that, they changed everything to meters around the world. Unfortunately, he didn’t get to compete in the Olympics because he ended up having a hamstring injury, but he ran a 9.0 100 yards. Now, if you know anything about sprinting, you will know that that equates to probably about a 9.8, maybe 9.8 100 meters, which means Delano Meriwether in the shoes that he was wearing in ’71 on the bad track surface that he was running on in 1971 would’ve been, I think third in this 100 meters in the Paris Olympics.

So, what’s that saying about the evolution of technology? Let alone athletes or possibly performance enhancing substances, which could be anything from slim gyms to Pop Tarts to other things. There’s actually, if you haven’t seen the movie, Bigger, Stronger, Faster*, find it and watch it. There’s one thing in the movie that’s very interesting, in one epilogue to the movie. The interesting thing is there’s a sports scientist who said, “Just imagine if you…” Well, they’ve actually done this, but well, do this in the right order. He says, “Imagine that your livelihood…” I mean the future of your financial independence for you and your family and maybe even your village depending on where you came from, “… was dependent on you doing well in a race and you had the opportunity to do well in the race by taking some sort of drug. Would you take it?”

The answer’s probably yes. What if you knew other people were taking things? Would you then do it? The answer’s pretty much guaranteed to be yes. There’s a guy who, I think it was from the Seoul Olympics who was part of the World Anti-Doping Association, or at least part of the American version of that, kept all the samples that they took of athletes and 20 years later tested them to see if any of them were showing up positive for things that they didn’t know how to test back in ’88. And he stopped after, I think 100, because everybody tested positive. So, this is a cat and mouse game, and the cat in that equation is World Anti-Doping, the mouse or the athletes and the people working with those athletes and the cats typically are blind, deaf, dumb, and have no claws. That’s my take on those things.

So, was it really an exciting thing to watch, and was it incredible to look at what technology could show about who the winner was? Was there confusion about whether it’s about your foot crossing line or some part of your torso crossing line? All of that is all very interesting. Suffice it to say, I got to just leave it at this, it wasn’t that exciting or interesting for me to watch because I know that everyone is comparing just all the people in this race to the people in this race, and not often taking the historical context and wondering what’s really going on. So, there’s more to it than that. In fact, you can leave comments about what you think may be going on or not going on, what you thought about the race. Leave comments wherever you can leave comments, wherever you can find those.

You can do that at jointhemovementmovement.com or wherever you happen to be watching this or listening to this if they accept comments. Anyway, that’s my rant for the day. I’m going to go back to watching things that have been really exciting, like wrestling and very tense, like archery, that’s wrapping up. Watch events that you’ve never seen. That’s my only recommendation for the Olympics. I went to the Atlanta Olympics and I went to a lot of events actually, I even went to the trials, because they were held all around Colorado for the Atlanta Olympics, and I went to everything that I knew nothing about and some of the most exciting times of my life. So, go watch things nothing about and think you won’t be interested in, and maybe you’ll be surprised and happy for that suggestion.

All right, again, go to www.jointhemovementmovement.com, find previous episodes, find places you can engage with us. Give us a like and a thumbs up and a share, and a five-star review and hit the bell icon on YouTube. And again, you know the drill on that. And if you have any recommendations, suggestions, people you want to have on the podcast with me or if you just want to chat or if you think that I’ve got cranial rectal reorientation syndrome, happy to hear all of that. You can send me an email. I’m at move, M-O-V-E, @jointhemovementmovement.com. And until next time, go out, have fun and live life feet first.

 

 

 

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