An improvement index to quantify the evolution of performance in running

HAAKE, Steve, FOSTER, Leon and JAMES, David (2014). An improvement index to quantify the evolution of performance in running. Journal of Sports Sciences, 32 (7), 610-622.

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2013.841974
Link to published version:: https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2013.841974

Abstract

Improvements in track and field sports have been attributed to factors such as population increase, drugs and new technologies, but previous research has found it difficult to distinguish the contributions from specific influences. Here it is shown how this is possible by means of a performance improvement index based on useful work done combined with modelling of the annual top 25 performances. The index was set to 100 in 1948 and showed that, by 2012, it had increased in running events to between 110.5 and 146.7 (men's 100 m and marathon). Underlying global effects accounted for the majority of all improvements (16.2 to 46.7) with smaller influences attributable to an influx of African runners (3.6 to 9.3), and a 4 -year oscillation that arose from staging of the Olympic Games (±0.2 to ±0.6). Performance decreased with the introduction of compulsory random drug testing (−0.9 to −3.9) the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA; −0.5 to −2.5) and fully automated timing (−0.6 to −2.5). Changes in elite sporting performance since the 1890s are attributable to societal changes caused by the industrial revolution and globalisation superimposed on millennia of human evolution.

Item Type: Article
Research Institute, Centre or Group - Does NOT include content added after October 2018: Centre for Sports Engineering Research
Identification Number: https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2013.841974
Page Range: 610-622
Depositing User: Carole Harris
Date Deposited: 31 Jan 2014 14:51
Last Modified: 18 Mar 2021 15:05
URI: https://shura.shu.ac.uk/id/eprint/7707

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