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The whole article is beyond stupid. It's impossible to seriously discuss athletic records in 2014 and not mention drugs. No discussion of steroids, blood doping, hgh, nothing. For context, the major marathons just increased their drug penalties [1]. The second they get serious about testing they'll discover they have the exact same problem as bicycle racing. [1] http://www.bmw-berlin-marathon.com/en/news-and-media/news/20... curun1r: steroids are useful for the exact same reason in the tour de france: decreased training recovery times, joint protection, etc. See eg nordic skiing [2]. You don't take the same doses as bodybuilders do because your goal isn't hypertrophy, but it still helps. Or see this quote [3] To boost their strength is not the sole reason athletes turn to steroids,
Yesalis adds. "They have been taken for at least 45 years by endurance
athletes to recover from workouts rapidly. With steroids, a marathon runner
can run longer, a swimmer can do more laps and a cyclist can spend more time
pedaling." In sports where endurance is everything, the ability to last
longer during workouts and competitions confers a definite advantage.
Read more at: http://phys.org/news71508517.html#jCp
Also -- and I missed this mention amidst the scrolling -- while the article mentions epo, it proceeds to discount epo, and avoids any other drugs Doping with EPO or blood transfusions is one way of boosting an already-high
VO2 max—and it’s possible that cheating may have contributed to the drop in
the marathon record, and could even be the “secret” that allows runners to
approach sub-two in the future. But Radcliffe’s numbers offer a reminder
that such tactics aren’t necessary to achieve boundary-breaking
performances: Her VO2 max was already exceptional when she was a teenager,
and it stayed at a relatively constant level throughout her career.
Steroids and other drugs help, as demonstrated by baseball, basketball, football, hockey, powerlifting, olympic lifting, bodybuilding, tour-de-france cycling, time-trial cycling, cross-country skiing, nordic skiing, judo, boxing, and mma. Every athletic endeavor that has been seriously tested has found record-breakers using steroids. The point isn't that having an off-the-scale vo2 max isn't required. That's table stakes. Steroids plus other drugs take that exceptional vo2 max and turn it inhuman.[2] http://www.steroids.info/2012/10/09/documentary-looks-at-ste... [3] http://phys.org/news71508517.html |