One of the most talked-about sports stories of the past year is the controversy surrounding Oscar Pistorius, the bi-lateral amputee sprinter who is trying to make a bid for the Olympics and is appealing the IAAF’s ruling that he has a technical advantage. Ossur, the maker of those Cheetahs, invites everyone to form their own opinion based on new information as presented by ESPN’s E:60, Good Morning America, Nightline, and ESPN Magazine.
Looking for insights into this game-changing issue that raises scientific, ethical and philosophical questions, and for the past three months, ESPN’s investigative journalists have traveled the globe to learn more. They interviewed Oscar, his family, coach, prosthetist, friends, competitors, lawyers, and Ossur, too. They also interviewed Professor Bruggemann, the German doctor who originally tested him on behalf of the IAAF.
What to see on April 15th:
In addition, ESPN Magazine’s April 21st cover story will delve into Oscar’s case.
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An independent study of athlete performances showed that under the new 2012 USA Olympic Team Trials - Men’s Marathon qualifying rules passed at the recent USATF Convention, 69 men would have qualified for the 2008 Trials which were held in New York City last month, a 61% reduction from the number who actually qualfied. That race had 179 qualifiers and 130 starters.
The study, conducted by Race Results Weekly, showed that just 35 men would have qualifed with a 2:19:00 or better marathon run on either an IAAF record-standard course (no more than 50% start/finish separation and elevation loss limited to 42.195 meters), plus the Boston Marathon, from which the USATF Men’s Long Distance Running Committee said they would be inclined to accept performances.
Fourteen athletes who were accepted into the 2008 Trials with marathon marks better than 2:19:01 would have been excluded because their performances were achieved on aided courses, like the 2006 Freescale Austin Marathon (137 meter elevation loss), 2006 California International Marathon (105 meters), 2006 and 2007 St. George Marathon (781 meters), and 2007 Top of Utah Marathon (319 meters).
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Stretching the leg muscles improves muscle flexibility and strength, running speed, and jumping distance, according to a study from Louisiana State University (Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, October 2007).
Stretching elongates muscles and tendons. Longer tendons allow muscles to exert a greater torque on the joint to exert more power to help you lift heavier, jump higher and run faster.
However, other studies show that you should not stretch before a competition involving speed and strength (Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies, April 2006). The longer the athletes stretched, the weaker they became. Prolonged stretching fatigues muscle fibers so that they contract with reduced force.
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Delegates to the USATF convention who attended the open session of the Long Distance Running Division chaired by Fred Finke were anxious to debate the ban on headphones in road races which was imposed by USATF at last year’s convention.
“We realize this issue has caused a great deal of angst,” said Finke, who has received hundreds of e-mails on the subject. “It seems to be a hot button issue.”
USATF enacted the ban in accordance with a rule put in place by the IAAF which banned the use of headphones in championship events. The IAAF ban was intended to prevent athletes from receiving information via radio about the whereabouts of their rivals, a practice which is permitted in the big bicycle tours, like the Tour de France.
But in practical application, it has meant that recreational runners are not allowed to wear MP3 players, like Apple’s iPod, and listen to music during road races. Only a handful of U.S. races have actively enforced the ban.
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Athletes can expect to feel fatigued when their blood sugar levels drop. Researchers at Loughborough University, UK showed that athletes who did not take sugar during soccer competition lasting 90 minutes felt more tired, had less competitive desire, and had far lower blood sugar levels than athletes who took a sugared drink every 15 minutes during their game (Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, October 2007).
Your brain gets more than 98 percent of its energy from sugar in the bloodstream. However there is only enough sugar in the bloodstream to last about three minutes. The liver must constantly release sugar into the bloodstream, but there is only enough sugar in the liver to last eight hours during rest and far less than that during exercise. So athletes who do not take a source of sugar during events lasting more than an hour can suffer the psychological effects of low blood sugar levels what include a mental feeling of fatigue and lowered competitive desire.
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For many years I have believed that heating muscles in a whirlpool or sauna after exercise interferes with muscle contractions and hampers muscular endurance.
However, a study from the University of Otago in New Zealand shows that taking a sauna after workouts for three weeks helped athletes to exercise longer to exhaustion (Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, Sports Medicine Australia, August 2007).
Trained runners sat in a humid sauna for 30 minutes at 89.9 degrees centigrade immediately after exercising, 12 times in three weeks. They then ran as hard as they could on a treadmill for about 15 minutes, to exhaustion.
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The New York City Sports Commission and New York Road Runners today announced that the ING New York City Marathon brings an estimated $220 million in economic impact to the city. Already the highest-grossing single-day sporting event in New York, the marathon’s estimated impact this year is up from $205 million in 2006. These figures are the results of an independent study conducted by Economics Research Associates.
The annual event, now in its 38th year, has more than 37,000 runners, 2.5 million spectators lining the streets of New York, and a worldwide television audience of more than 300 million. Eighty percent of the runners are from outside New York City and nearly 50 percent come from outside the U.S.
“The ING New York City Marathon is as diverse as the city itself,” said New York Road Runners president and CEO Mary Wittenberg. “With more than 100,000 applicants this year, the event continues to attract runners from around the world while bringing together the city of New York.”
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People who have longer lower leg lengths (the distance from knee to ankle) will usually have greater endurance during running or walking than those with shorter lower leg lengths.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin showed that people with longer lower legs use less energy when they run (Journal of Human Evolution, August 2007).
In a previous paper in the same journal, these authors showed that people with longer lower legs are better able to prevent heat build-up, which slows you down and makes you tired. When you exercise, almost 80 percent of the energy that you use to power your muscles is lost as heat.
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Marking a trend of continued growth, road runners and walkers raised $714 million for charity in 2006, USA Track & Field (USATF) announced Monday. The figure marks a nearly 9 percent increase over 2005 and shows continued, steady increases since USATF began its annual charity survey in 2002.
The Nike Women’s Marathon and Half-Marathon was named the 2006 USATF Charitable Race of the Year, while the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and its GREAT STRIDES program was honored as 2006 Charitable Organization of the Year.
Conducted internally by USATF, the national governing body of track and field, long-distance running and race walking, the study revealed that more than $714 million was raised for charitable causes by runners in 2006.
USATF gathered data from national charitable race series/organizations and a sample of nearly 200 running/walking races, including many of the country’s largest races.
“The continued growth of charity fundraising in the current economic climate shows the dedication of charity runners and walkers to their cause, as well as the strength of road running in this country,” said USATF CEO Craig A. Masback.
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Price has long been associated with quality when it comes to consumer goods. However, for all those athletes out there pinching pennies to save up for a decent pair of running shoes, good news is afoot.
According to an article published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, cheap and moderately priced shoes are just as good - and sometimes better than - pricey ones when comparing cushioning impact and general comfort.
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