One of my favorite quadrennial rituals is the serve-and-volley between articles arguing that progress in Olympic sports has ground to a halt and those—like the one I wrote in June—wondering how the heck athletes managed to defy our predictions and continue getting faster. Somehow we always manage to convince ourselves that we’ve picked all the low-hanging fruit, and the only way to get better in the future will be to change the rules or cheat.
That’s why the title of a recent article in the International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance caught my attention: “The Evolution of World-Class Endurance Training: The Scientist’s View on Current and Future Trends.” It’s the “future” part that piqued my interest. An expert panel of 25 sports scientists who work with world-leading endurance athletes and coaches, wrangled by Øyvind Sandbakk and former Olympic cross-country skier Silvana Bucher Sandbakk, both of the Norwegian University of Science of Technology, peered into their crystal balls to predict why and how they think top athletes will keep getting faster.
The panel actually addressed two…
