The effect of technological interventions: do they work?

Analysis of over 120 years of elite sporting performances showed that the mean performance data for each year is needed to allow the effect of interventions such as rule changes and the introduction of new technologies to be assessed. Performance data such as times and distances were converted to a performance improvement index to enable comparisons between sports. Fitting of mathematical models to the data showed that the limit of the mean performance in the 100 m sprint limit is 15% higher than that in 1948. The introduction of fully automated timing in 1975 produced an apparent reduction in performance of 3.6% while the Olympics produces a small oscillation in performance of 0.3%. The 1986 rule change in the javelin reduced performances by 13% while the introduction of new materials in the pole-vault was estimated to have improved performances in the 1960s by around 15%.