Genuine question, are you accusing spikes of being supershoes? I was under the impression that supershoes are like the vaporflies, cloudwhatevers etc. Just wondering what is being accused here.
Its worth noting that the world population has gone up from ~5 billion in 1990 to ~8 billion today. Theoretically there should be almost twice as many fast people today as there were 35 years ago. Additionally, nearly every sport is seeing an increase in the quality of athletes, probably due to increasing availability of training advice and more opportunities to compete.
Population increase doesn’t explain the dramatic decrease in the times we are seeing in distance races. It may mean more fast runners, but not the improvement in times. Also, keep in mind, sprinters haven’t shown the same dramatic improvement during the same period
There was a streak around 2016 when no one was really running fast indoor times. Go look at 2011/2012/2013, tons of times around 7:30 with some 7:20’s. Now it seems there are way more people trying to run fast indoors. And even in those years Americans were near the front with guys like hill, Rupp, and lagat running around 7:30-7:33. So I’m not shocked a decade later there are some college guys still running five seconds slower than that
Its worth noting that the world population has gone up from ~5 billion in 1990 to ~8 billion today. Theoretically there should be almost twice as many fast people today as there were 35 years ago. Additionally, nearly every sport is seeing an increase in the quality of athletes, probably due to increasing availability of training advice and more opportunities to compete.
Population increase doesn’t explain the dramatic decrease in the times we are seeing in distance races. It may mean more fast runners, but not the improvement in times. Also, keep in mind, sprinters haven’t shown the same dramatic improvement during the same period
Uhhh neither have US pro marathoners. Or half marathon runners. Or 10k runners.
Was Justyn Knight one of the fastest guys in the world? It wouldn't be shocking if the current fastest 3k and 5k guys in the NCAA made global finals in the 5k this year at the olympics. Let's acknowledge that there are some absolute studs in the NCAA right now. A decade ago no one doing well at the olympics was in the NCAA or their first year out. Now tons of guys at the front of the world ranks are from the NCAA the past five years. Also the average age of the top NCAA athletes is older now than it was in 2018 due to covid years and higher rates of red-shirts.
Ya, Wil Smith from Gongaza is a monster. 7:44.97 (ranked 20th). Faster than Knight.
Although he will not be running the 3000m at NCAA (did not qualify). Expect him to be an Olympic finalist in Paris (like Knight was).
Not…
Alright you’re drunk. Expect will to go to the marathon soon.