Other/Mixed The change in the physiques of sprinters - what's happened? Training shift?

[Paul_Cole9]

They now seem a lot less muscular than they were. Don't get me wrong, they still (in the main) look like Gods. It is just that they are now not as bulky as they once were. Even Usain Bolt is not as muscled as sprinters in the early 2000s. And Lemaitre could pass as an 800m runner. Lemaitre is fastest man in Europe

Is this a training decision? Or is it that drugs tessting has become more stringent? Or both?

 

[Kettlebelephant]

Or is it that drugs tessting has become more stringent? Or both?

I doubt that... I don't want to start a discussion here, but I'm 100% positive that every single athlete competing at the highest level at the olympics (with the exception of some people like horse riders, pistol shooters etc.) is using some kind of doping.
There are so many things that can't be detected by the current test methods. Look at Ilya Ilyin for example. He wasn't tested positive back in 2008 or 2012, but in 2015/16 the testing methods finally caught up to him. Top level doping is always 5-10 years ahead of the testing methods.
Yesterday they interviewed a german scientist who talked about a special kind of testosterone drug that you can use 365 days per year right now without triggering positive test results. The same guy also did research about new world records and release dates of new meds/drugs and found interesting results.

Michael Johnson wasn't overly muscular either and he held the 200m record for years. There are still a lot of "big" guys in the 100m, like Yohan Blake for example. The 200m has always been more prone to "smaller" guys.
Btw look up some of the old record holders. Pietro Mennea for example (200m WR from 1979 to 1996, 19,72seconds compared to Johnson's 19,66/19,32) looked like a marathon runner...
Donovan Bayley (100m WR in 1996) wasn't big either. When you look at the size of his muscles he looks like Bolt (except for different height and arm/leg length obviously). Or take a look at Carl Lewis.


I'm pausing my sleep tonight (3:30 a.m. in Germany) for the 200m finale Did the same thing for the 100m.

 

[ClaudeR]

horse riders

you wouldn't believe how much doping goes on in that world... doping for riders is difficult to define (and not tested), but both horse and rider are as loaded as a Tour de France winner in the 90ies

sorry for the off-topic, it is a question I have asked myself too... and at the same time I am wondering why the very big muscled guys would have an advantage, and it appears that they don't now

interesting topic

 

[Kettlebelephant]

I don't know about the riders (especially the ones doing Dressage), but I totally agree about the horses.

 

[Harald Motz]

...Maybe the effects of Chief's work at work here.
citing out of https://www.amazon.com/Underground-...TF8&qid=1471604306&sr=8-1&keywords=barry+ross:
" In his outstanding book of strength training, Power to the People, Pavel Tsatsouline states, " If you compare strength training to car racing, conventional bulking up is an unimaginative increase of the engine size." Increasing the physical size of the engine neither automatically nor maximally increase its horsepower. The same holds true in the pursuit of running speed, since buk does not automatically increase speed. But there is also a negative attached to bulk. As you know, MSF is mass-specific force. This means that if you add mass (weight) to your body then the amount of force applied to the ground must increase proportionely to maintain the same rate of speed."

The Author of this outstanding must red of barely 90 pages, Barry Ross, trained the young great Allyson Felix and helped her climbing to the top. He cites Pavel frequently, and seems to be highly influenced by him. He explains his Easy Strength approach for elite sprinters. The main lift is low rep, low set heavy deads (+some plyos), on a few sessions a week. To minimize hypertrophy effects the bar is dropped immediately at the top of the lift. He is all about making athletes relatively pound per pound stronger, to increase force production.

 

[ali]

Technique. At the last Olympics there was a documentary about how sprinting has changed since the approach of Jesse Owens, going from running technique, to muscle power and back to technique and strength.

Interesting very recent take on Bolt:

"Sprinting technique has been one of the main reasons for Usain Bolt’s domination in the sport of track and field."

Here: How Usain Bolt Became Super Fast — Digital Track and Field

 

[Deleted member 5559]

When I used to run track my times were best when I focused on the tempo of my arms. One way to get faster is increase the force of the stride the other is to increase the RPM of the strides. I used to sprint down hill to force myself to increase my RPMs. I suspect focusing on RPM is likely the cause for faster, yet less muscular sprinters.