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More than most other species, humans are perfectly adapted to endurance running. We may not be the fastest or strongest, but our ability to endure meant our early ancestors could survive and thrive, and modern-day humans can rightfully claim we are all meant to run. Prof. Ross Tucker and sports journalist Mike Finch, who has been the editor of Runner's World SA for 26 years, discuss the amazing adaptations that humans have developed for running, why running may be the most natural sport for you to do, how to train from couch to 5km safely and effectively, the role of shoe tech and why the world seems to be on a running high right now.

Show notes

• The original Lieberman paper, Running and the Evolution of Homo
• That paper was challenged, not for what, but why. Here's one example
• The BBC video of a bushman hunting down a kudu
• In time, evidence emerged to support Lieberman's argument, showing persistence hunting in over 200 geographical locations
• How many injuries? A systematic review and meta-analysis on injury rates in runners
• A systematic review on risk factors for injury during running
• One of the more robust research studies looking at pronation and injury risk
• Subsequent analysis of that paper offered more support for motion control shoes in specific populations
• The plot thickens: Another well-conducted study finds that pronation does not increase injury risk in novice runners

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Show notes

Our recap of the final night of the Ultimate Championship in Budapest:

• (00:01:53) Jasmine Jones upsets the women's 400m hurdles field in 52.45, while the two who dominated the season may have slightly mistimed their peaks
• (00:05:57) Alison dos Santos wins the 400m hurdles in 45.98, the third fastest ever run, and we look at what Rai Benjamin's year on the flat may buy him next year.
• (00:13:10) A solo win for Likina Amebaw in the women's 5000m. She breaks away with a surge faster than world record pace after 2000m, but the broadcast fails to tell the story of her dominant performance
• (00:25:43) Daniel Sedjati pounces to win a somewhat surprising 800m in 1:41.91. We talk about Marco Arop, who did what was best for him, but also the other main contenders, while Wanyonyi found the 2026 season a week too long
• (00:32:13) The USA win the mixed 4x400m. We pick apart some of the fastest and slowest segments
• (00:36:17) Josh Kerr wins the 1500m in 3:29.35 without leaving fourth gear (after being seeded 13th in a 12 man field)!
• (00:40:41) Kenny Bednarek's 19.52s is the fifth fastest 200m in history, as he delivers what his 100m said he could
• (00:43:45) Melissa Jefferson-Wooden runs 21.47s to win the women's 200m. It's the third fastest women's 200m ever, and we ask which old sprint record goes first?
• (00:53:06) Josh Kerr would rather wear his sponsor's kit than his country's. We disagree, and discuss where the Ultimate Championships belong on the global calendar
• (00:59:26) Our verdict on the first Ultimate Championship, and when it should be held

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Show notes

Our day two recap, and a preview of the final night of the Ultimate Championships:

• (00:01:02) Night two was a clear step up on day one, with six finals and qualifying races that actually mattered and produced intrigue.
• (00:01:34) Marileidy Paulinho wins the 400m in 49.07 to end an unbeaten season, and we wonder why Lieke Klaver keeps going out so hard.
• (00:06:53) Collen Kebinatshipi wins the men's 400m in 43.39s, with a new race plan, which he explains himself. A record number of sub-44s in a season, and a 42 second man in the making.
• (00:15:50) Klaudia Kazimierska outkicks Georgia Hunter Bell in a tactical 1500m, to establish herself as versatile in addition to the world leader.
• (00:16:15) World Athletics' AI predictions become a running joke, and we offer to fix them (again!).
• (00:27:42) Audrey Werro leads the 800m from the gun and wins as we predicted, albeit more slowly. Hodgkinson and Bol round out the concrete-ists. We discuss Werro's dominant race, the progressive wind-up, and Hodkingson's stuttering season.
• (00:34:31) Melissa Jefferson-Wooden's start beats Julien Alfred in the 100m, and Kenny Bednarek surprises Oblique Seville in the men's race.
• (00:38:37) We preview the final night, with both 400m hurdles finals, a wide open women's 5000m, Josh Kerr's 1500m to win however he pleases, and both 200m finals.
• (00:54:55) And finally, which event pays the most per second of work?

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Show notes

Our day one recap, and a look ahead to a much bigger day two:

• (00:00:52) First impressions of the Ultimate Championship. The black infield, the pink sand, a schedule that felt rushed, and camera work that never quite showed us the athleticism. And don't get us started on the predictions
• (00:07:26) The money, at $150,000 to a winner and $40,000 for third, which beats winning a Diamond League final.
• (00:15:39) Our featured event, the men's 5000m. Jakob Ingebrigtsen breaks 13 minutes off a season wrecked by surgery, and we ask why his rivals let the middle kilometers drift.
• (00:34:43) Masai Russell caps a season of meeting records at every Diamond League she ran, plus the world record.
• (00:37:43) Ja'Kobe Tharp, this year's world record breaker, beats Cordell Tinch in the 110m hurdles. Do both hurdles records go again next year?
• (00:40:25) Day two brings six finals, starting with the 400s, where Marileidy Paulino and Collen Kebinatshipi look untouchable.
• (00:44:14) The women's 1500m, where tactical intrigue creates an open race
• (00:47:30) The women's 800m, our race of the weekend. Audrey Werro is unbeaten all year, and Femke Bol and Keely Hodgkinson are both coming for her.
• (00:56:00) The 100m finals, Melissa Jefferson-Wooden against Julien Alfred, and a men's field covered by six hundredths.
• (01:01:49) Prestige, or just the cash? Our verdict after one night

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Doping in South African schoolboy rugby, the end of the track season, and racing in 44 degree heat at the Vuelta. In the news this week:

• (00:02:07) The track and field season is winding down, and the Diamond League final felt a little flat. The Ultimate Championships are next, and in a season where they follow the Diamond League, we wonder what purpose the Diamond League final actually serves?
• (00:10:05) Is the 800m a sprint or an endurance event? Some discussion popped up on Instagram, so we revist the 800m event, get into energy system contribution, why the 1983 world record has survived, and explore why every improvement has come in the first lap, all as part of making the case for the 800m as a sprint-endurance hybrid
• (00:22:49) Jakob Ingebrigtsen calls the Brussels field cowards and losers after Cole Hocker's training partner is put in as a pacemaker. Should a final have pacemakers at all?
• (00:31:08) Rumesh Pathirage wins the javelin, and we wonder why the event has the widest geographic spread in athletics
• (00:36:12) Doping in South African schoolboy rugby, and the perverse incentives that make it so hard to fix. A survey found one in ten schoolboys admitting steroid use, and two thirds said it was to look good rather than to perform. Almost half don't see it as cheating. We discuss the incentives that create toxic culture in many youth sports, with a specific focus on a recent piece on SA schoolboy rugby
• (00:54:12) Triathlete Joe Skipper gets 18 months for three whereabouts failures. We say that being disorganised is no defence
• (00:57:41) 44 degrees at the Vuelta, Matthew Brennan calling out the UCI, and whether shortening a stage or moving the race in the calendar helps
• (01:05:52) Carlos Alcaraz says he'll take longer breaks, tennis has a load management problem, and the one-handed backhand dies after a 149 year run
• (01:19:08) And finally, why can elite powerlifters squat more than they deadlift? Gareth wants your answer on Discourse

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Show notes

• (00:06:29) Alison dos Santos takes Karsten Warholm's 400m hurdles world record with 45.80s, catching Warholm by the fourth hurdle. We get into stride patterns, why Edwin Moses ran 13 strides and Kevin Young 12, which leg leads on the bend, and how shoes may have interacted with fatigue to drive hurdles forward more than sprinting.
• (00:15:59) Masai Russell's 12.09 is the first 100m hurdles world record set without a following wind since 1986. She was anticipated as the next WR holder, and she delivered, with the promise of faster and an 11.xx on the horizon.
• (00:24:35) Femke Broders-Bol takes the 800m out from the front against Audrey Werro, and why the tactic was right for her even though it suited Werro perfectly.
• (00:34:57) Bol revealed her LT and long run paces, to much amazement. But her coach Laurent Meuwly explained this in detail, and sets us up for a fascinating discussion on Bol's transition and ceiling. We talk about her statement that her endurance is "so bad for 800", why her 400m speed matters far more, and tee up our upcoming Applied show where we will dissect her coach's explanations to Citius Mag
• (00:27:23) Karsten Warholm on a chaotic calendar, with our thoughts
• (00:43:23) The Vuelta without Tadej Pogačar, where tactical mistakes carry a cost again, and cycling as we haven't seen for a decade. Plus, Tom Pidcock's mountain bike win.
• (00:52:11) Novak Djokovic's US Open exit, and a physio who refused to treat Terence Atmane's cramp. Is cramp an injury, or a conditioning problem?
• (00:58:22) Aaron Donald returns to the NFL at 35, and how much conditioning an athlete loses.
• (01:02:54) Yomif Kejelcha's 56:51 half marathon, and who breaks two hours this autumn? Ross reckons two might do it.
• (01:09:16) Jeff Browning's heart attack at UTMB, and Jenny Simpson's collapse. Fitness is protective, but it isn't immunity, with David Epstein's terrific article
• (01:13:35) South Africa against New Zealand, and racing robots in China, where our advice is to stop short of a wall.

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Briton Tony Davies has pretty much seen it all when it comes to television sport broadcasting. With over 20 years' experience in broadcast TV as a director, producer and writer, Davies has made a number of documentaries, including the RTS-nominated A Bat and Ball War, and worked on numerous sports events including the FIFA World Cup, Rugby World Cup, Olympic Games, Paralympics, Asian Games, Wimbledon, Open Championship and Tour de France.

His broadcast experience opened the door to event management roles, and Davies has worked as Broadcast Venue Manager on the past three Rugby World Cups. He was also the Broadcast Project Manager for the Special Olympics in 2019. During his early years, he worked on the legendary sports magazine show, Trans World Sport and his interviewed some of the biggest names in world sport, including Mike Tyson, Muhammad Ali, Maradona, Pele, a 13-year-old Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Wayne Gretzky, Kip Keino and even Whitney Houston and John Candy.

In this episode we talk about how commentators are chosen, the economics of sports broadcasting, how modern technology is changing how we watch sports and what the future holds in the digital age for viewers.

Davies lives in Nelson, New Zealand, where he lives with his wife and six (yes, it's not a typo !) children. He enjoys a number of sports including cycling, running, boxing, hunting, fishing and paddling. He is a frequent visitor to the UK, where he still has a base, and to Asia, where he does production work for the BBC.

Also, for our Real Science of Sport Members, stick around after the show for some bonus content as we continued our chat with Tony and got even more fascinating insights, including his thoughts on social media influencers as broadcast 'partners', why he doesn't buy into the 'all access' documentaries so frequently made about sports events, and his choice of best documentary ever made. If you're not a member, a small monthly donation gets you that bonus content, ad-free listening, exclusive shows and membership of our Discourse community, of which Tony is a member too!

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Show notes

On the show this week, a European Championships wrap featuring Nadia Battocletti's astonishing 10,000m finish and Audrey Werro's win over Keely Hodgkinson, a German sprinter under a doping cloud, world records in the pool, and a follow-up on peptides.

• (00:01:41) A follow-up to the peptides show with Mike, and the thing Ross wishes he had said. The anecdote that BPC-157 failed to fix someone's Achilles is the human version of publication bias, because nobody ever tells you about the thing that didn't work.
• (00:12:23) The European Championships format and the broadcast, which featured more talking heads than athletics on the BBC, and an athletic programme with far too little action relative to downtime.
• (00:16:52) The women's 800m, where Werro beat Hodgkinson for her fourth sub-1:55 of the year, and Bol ran a national record in third. Whose trajectory looks best in the medium to long-term?
• (00:28:26) Batocletti's exceptional sprint finish, and a Tim Noakes tweet asking why she could speed up at all. Ross explains the end spurt, the reserve we all hold back, and why this particular race proves rather less than it appears to.
• (00:31:52) A stat from Jason Henderson: Batocletti's last 200m was 28.17, Werro's in the 800m was 29.11. Not a typo, and we explain why the fatigue of an 800m is a completely different animal, and speculate that it's probably more common than you'd think for the 10000m races to finish faster than the 800m ones
• (00:34:37) Andreas Almgren's solo 10,000m, run at 26:43 pace for the final 8.8km. Tactical optimization and a signal for a sub 26:30 in the future?
• (00:40:22) Amy Hunt's four golds, and a newspaper headline that poured cold water on them.
• (00:43:42) Owen Ansah wins European gold under a doping cloud, having refused a test because he had a flight to catch. What counts as "compelling justification", and why a 2016 case suggests he is in trouble.
• (00:52:26) The tragic death of Fin Tarling, the near-impossibility of policing a 1,300km course, and Adam Hansen's call for better helmets, which are certified only to 19.5km/h.
• (00:59:47) Swimming, where Kate Douglass broke the 50m freestyle world record twice in a day, a 19-year-old German went under 14:30 for the 1500m free, and Lani Pallister beat Katie Ledecky over 800m for the first time.
• (01:10:46) And finally, South Africa versus New Zealand has branded itself "Rugby's Greatest Rivalry". Gareth is not buying it. Ross offers the context for why it's about more than rugby, but also great rugby

No news show next week, but there's an interview show planned for Monday, and the members' Applied show will take overtraining next week Friday.

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Everywhere you look people are talking about peptides. But what exactly are they, how do they work and how safe are they for human consumption? Mike and Ross review the evidence, discuss the politics that continue to muddy the waters around peptide efficacy and regulation, and examine the dangers of using untested peptides. The team also look into the role of the popular GLP-1's that have revolutionised diabetes and weight loss and the controversial BPC-17 peptide, touted as a miracle treatment for tissue repair.

Links

The Undark article that describes the history of BPC157

More on the FDA and the complex regulation of peptides

A report on one of the FDA decisions about peptides - in this case BPC157 and KPV

A paper from the discoverer of BPC157, who has published more than three-quarters of the research on it

The human safety study on BPC157, with its two participants

Systematic review of BPC157 evidence, suggesting promise but caution

A well researched article by Dr Eric Topol raising concerns about safety and regulatory decisions

Example of a public warning from a regulatory body, this one from South Africa

Follow the money - Fortune 500 piece on why deregulation could create a multibillion dollar market

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Show notes

On the show today, the physiology behind the best women's Grand Tour we can remember, and a doping ban that fits a pattern we have seen many times before.

• (00:01:00) The Tour de France Femmes was, we think, the best Grand Tour either of us has watched in years, and we explore the nine stages of unpredictable racing that had us intrigued, even if the record will show that Demi Vollering won four of them.
• (00:05:56) Kasia Niewiadoma's ride on Mont Ventoux, at somewhere between 5.3 and 5.6 W/kg for the climb, is arguably the greatest climbing performance in the history of women's cycling, and we place it against the published power duration curves to show just how far outside the 90th percentile it sits.
• (00:17:19) Niewiadoma also posted 9.9 W/kg for 86 seconds, and from that single Strava screenshot we work out her FTP and her W', the anaerobic "battery", which lets us answer the question everyone argued about, namely whether being blocked into that corner actually cost her time to rival Vollering. We think the answer is unequivocally yes, and the maths and the principle of pacing explains why.
• (00:25:50) Praise for Puck Pieterse, sympathy for Marlen Reusser and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, and a wonder about the 'mature' podium, and the prospect of a handover to the next generation in good time, just not 'our time'
• (00:41:41) The World U20 Championships, where a 17 year old ran 7:28 solo for 3000m, Tate Taylor doubled up in 9.94 and 19.83, and the ever-turning carousel of youth talent that is sometimes derailed by injury and sometimes deposed by the next young phenom
• (00:45:46) Jakob Ingebrigtsen returns and wins the European 5000m title in 13:16, off a slow race that played into his hands, and he explains, correctly, that a 5000m is not a test of speed but of how much speed you have left. He also promises he'll be "astonishingly a lot better" next time.
• (00:52:32) Jonah Koech gets a three year ban after an adverse passport finding. We explain how the biological passport actually works, why two suspicious samples means the values must have been wildly out of the norm, and why his 3.2% improvement should have invited scepticism long before the blood results did. Performance is not proof, but pattern recognition lives on, with this its latest illustration.
• (01:07:46) The WNBA has no eligibility policy, so two former NBA players have declared for the women's draft to prove the point. We discuss why choosing not to decide is itself a decision, how people are choosing to pretend a problem doesn't exist (or that it doesn't matter if it does), and contrast this with the WTA who have implemented screening for eligibility, and just gotten on with it
• (01:15:29) And finally, the origins of the steeplechase, which begins with two blokes, an Irish pub, a wager, and two church steeples. Plus a nutritionist on social media who watched 96 seconds and decided we had lost all credibility.

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Show notes

Josh Kerr, the Commonwealth Games, a stitch explained, the Tour de France Femmes, and yet another South African schoolboy rugby doping ban. In today's show:

• (00:00:38) We joked before Glasgow that this might be the last Commonwealth Games we ever see, and we were wrong. They survived in a cut-down, ten sport form, with India in 2030 and interest from Nigeria and New Zealand for 2034. We debate whether a smaller, cheaper games is actually the point rather than the problem, and what it means that the BBC's sub-one-million-pound bid was rejected, leaving Josh Kerr's mile watched by 200,000 people when Eilish McColgan's 10,000m in 2022 drew six million.
• (00:02:37) The performances, including Emmanuel Eseme of Cameroon running 9.83 in apocalyptic rain, three women under 11 seconds, and Josh Kerr's utterly dominant 3:54 mile off a jogged first kilometre. With the fastest mile in history relative to his peers and a devastating kick, how does anyone actually beat him now, and will the 1500m world record follow? Kerr says he is flying a little close to the sun, and we explain why staying in world record shape is like sitting in the death zone on Everest.
• (00:24:13) Laura Muir crossed the line 16th and collapsed after a stitch at 3km, so what actually causes one? We go through exercise related transient abdominal pain, the old diaphragmatic ischaemia theory, the newer parietal peritoneum irritation explanation, why shoulder tip pain is referred pain, and the risk factors including drinking before you run, being younger, being female, and having weaker trunk muscles.
• (00:33:56) Ingebrigtsen returns at the Euros over 5000m off two disrupted seasons and Achilles surgery, and we're not sure it'll be the comeback people hope for.
• (00:44:52) The Tour de France Femmes is brewing into a genuinely great race, with time gaps after the time-trial necessitating attacking racing as the Tour heads into its hilly and mountain stages. Niewiadoma and Ferrand-Prevot in particular need to claw back big time, while Reuser defends and Vollering waits ominously in pole-position. Instead the world's media is writing about padded bras. Why does cycling always shoot itself in the foot, and why is it a headline for the women when it was an incidental for the men?
• (00:47:40) Tadej Pogačar's estimated VO2max of over 100 is doing the rounds, using exactly the methods Ross was hammered for using on Contador and Froome fifteen years ago. We explain the modelling, why assumptions can spit out anything between 85 and 101, and what that means for comparing Pogačar to Pantani on Alpe d'Huez.
• (00:55:56) The full Markéta Vondroušová decision is out, and it reads very differently to the version that had tennis players outraged. Plus a hard look at South African schools rugby, where Deon Botes is the third schoolboy banned in months, this time for a supplement his father allegedly bought for cash from a stranger outside a pharmacy with "ultimate test booster" on the box.
• (01:12:47) Jannik Sinner walks away from a potential clean sweep of the Masters events to play less tennis before the US Open, while Carlos Alcaraz withdraws from Cincinnati and extends a wrist injury layoff that has now cost him May, June, July, and half of August. Two very different answers to the same question, and one that echoes Josh Kerr's approach to racing.
• (01:15:00) And finally, an update on Anna's ride around Australia. Nine days, 976km, 7,940m of climbing, one chain change, and three magpie attacks.

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Ross Hemingway, OBE, is a Sport & Exercise Medicine Practitioner at the Commando Training Centre for the Royal Marines. His clinical expertise centres on exertional collapse, in particular the prevention, acute management, and rehabilitation of exertional heat illness (EHI) in elite, amateur, and tactical athletes, and is recognised as a UK national expert in this field. Hemingway is also a member of the UK Heat Illness Advisory Group and a contributing author to the Faculty of Pre-Hospital Care’s (FPHC) UK consensus statement on the management of Exertional Heat Illness.

In this interview, Hemingway breaks down the theory of heat illness, how it happens, prevalence, and the best ways of dealing with EHI during exercise.

Alongside his clinical practice, he is also the founder of Nereus Medical Ltd and inventor of the patented I-CWIK, a lightweight, robust and clinically proven system developed to provide effective cold-water immersion of heat stroke casualties in the pre-hospital and hospital environment.

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SHOW NOTES

The EHI Consensus Statement website

The Full EHI Article, of which Ross is lead author

One of the studies Ross alluded to, this one from the World Champs in Doha

Another paper he mentioned, discussing athlete management ahead of the Olympic Games

The baboon model for heatstroke discussed on the show

We published a study years back documenting some heatstrokes in SA endurance events

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Show notes

This week we recap Tadej Pogačar's record-breaking Tour de France, and then get into the meat of it: why anti-doping leans so heavily on investigation and targeted testing, with insights from our interview with Brett Clothier, head of athletics' Athletics Integrity Unit.

• (02:24) Tadej Pogačar wins a fifth Tour de France in what Ross reckons is the most dominant display he has seen in any sport, and we dig into the numbers behind it, including an estimated 7 W/kg on Alpe d'Huez that obliterates Pantani's old mark, why the yellow jersey was effectively settled by stage six, and why the racing everywhere else still made it a decent watch.
• (13:55) The weight-loss double standard. Remco Evenepoel reportedly dropped around nine pounds for the Tour with barely a murmur, while Pauline Ferrand-Prévot's weight loss dominated the coverage last year. We ask why the reaction differs by sex, and where the line sits between periodised, medically supervised leanness and a genuine eating-disorder risk.
• (19:42) That Montmartre finale, with Van der Poel and Pogačar breaking clear on the last climb, van der Poel's heroic's to hold off the chasing pack, and Jasper Philipsen's remarkable judgement to "win" by not winning against his team-mate. Plus, we ponder whether the GC should really be neutralised so early on the final day? We say let them race.
• (32:37) The headline this week: why testing alone rarely catches the big fish, and why investigation and targeted testing do. Prompted by the furore over 2am and 5am testing at the Tour, we hear from Brett Clothier of the Athletics Integrity Unit, and explain the biological passport, the micro-dosing of EPO, fast-clearance methods, gene-doping fears, and why a genuinely "transparent" statement about a target test is close to impossible without prejudicing everyone involved.
• (46:26) A look ahead to the women's Tour de France, the contenders including Vollering, Blasi, Niewiadoma, Ferrand-Prévot and Reusser. With storylines galore, it features the return of a time trial, and French TV figures showing the women's race is closer to the men's than you might expect.
• (51:48) Are the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow still worth watching without the stars? Gareth is won over by the weightlifting, and we ask whether you really need the very best in the world to enjoy sport.
• (58:49) The Ultimate Championship, athletics' new 10 million dollar, three-night, TV-first format, complete with a black infield, real-time win probabilities, Mondo Duplantis on stadium DJ duty, and no country quotas. We react, and Ross pitches what he would add to the broadcast
• (64:16) Josh Kerr reveals how the pacing lights were slowed over the final 100 metres of his mile record to create the illusion he was beating them. Clever theatre, or are we being deceived?
• (67:00) And finally, Discourse member Ana sets off on a 15,000km "big lap" of Australia on her gravel bike. We wish her luck, and start plotting the data she should share with our listener community!

Links

• This is the ITA statement during the Tour - it's really all they can say and expecting more is a day dream!
• The article on gene doping - speculative and sounds like sci-fi, but might it be happening
• The paper on micro-dosing and detection challenges
• Plugge on how the tests brought doping back to cycling
• Preview of the TDF for Women
• Details on the World Athletics Ultimate Championships

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Quick heads up before we start: this is not a brand new episode. If you are one of our Members you will have heard it in full about six weeks ago, when we released it as a Members' only Applied show. But we thought it was too interesting and relevant to stay behind the paywall, so we have cut it down into this shorter version and opened it up to everyone, partly because we want sports science to reach as many people as possible, and partly because it is a taste of exactly what supporters get every week, ad free, alongside our Discourse community! So join now and get it early, ad-free and with post-pod chats!

The show was sparked by Gareth's admission that he paces his Zwift time trials by "trying not to die", which, as Ross points out, is already a sign the pacing has gone wrong. Pacing is not about reacting to fatigue once it arrives, but about managing effort now based on its future consequences. Using the analogy of a budget, we look at the two things it defends against, depletion of fuel like carbohydrate and creatine phosphate, and accumulation of heat, hydrogen ions, and other metabolites, and why good pacing is a skill that has to be learned.

From there we get applied. Why has elite pacing become flatter over the generations, why can you never bank time in a long event when the 400 and 800 metres break that rule, and how should you actually pace a hilly time trial? Drawing on Remco Evenepoel's world title ride, we anchor everything to FTP, unpack the concept of W', your anaerobic battery, and show why the extra effort you should spend climbing or into a headwind is far smaller than instinct suggests.

Whether you are chasing a marathon PB, a Zwift time trial, or simply trying not to blow up halfway, there are practical lessons here to get you to the finish faster. And if you enjoy it, this is only half of the full discussion. The complete version, plus a new Applied show every week, is waiting for you in the supporters club.

Links

• Ross' PhD was on the anticipatory regulation of performance. That is, pacing. This is the main summary article that came out of that PhD and related work
• The physiological regulation of pacing strategy for performance. Another review article from Ross' PhD work
• The Hazard Score, and how RPE interacts with distance remaining to regulate pace, as discussed on the podcast
• The paper that analyses world records and shows the surprising finding that performances have been unlocked with faster starts and smaller endspurts
• Entropy and positive pacing in the 800m. Nice accurate conclusion, the rest, we aren't so sure we understand!

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Show notes

The big story this week is another Tour de France anti-doping row, with race leaders Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard woken to give samples at 5am and 2am. But first, we discuss a forgettable World Cup final and a long overdue Mile world record

• (00:01:27) Spain beat Argentina to win the World Cup, in what Ross and Gareth reckon was the worst final in living memory. We discuss a game in which Argentina seemed intent on being regressive and aggressive, why the best player in the world was left stranded, the role fatigue and the extra day's rest may have played, and whether a solid tournament deserves better than a grudging seven out of ten.
• (00:16:14) Josh Kerr does exactly what he said he would and breaks Hicham El Guerrouj's 27 year old mile world record at the London Diamond League, running near-perfect 55 second laps on route to his 222. Point 66. We get into his near-perfect even pace, how wavelight technology has reduced the risk and unburdened the athlete to chase physiological limits, whether that cheapens anything, and why the 1500m record should surely be next.
• (00:35:23) The big story. Pogačar and Vingegaard were dope-tested at 5am and 2am on the morning of a mountain stage, and all hell broke loose. We explain why an 11pm to 6am block is normally sacrosanct and exempt from doping, but why allowances have to be made to test athletes within it on occasion. We the "serious and specific suspicion" exception that received judicial sign-off under French law, what that implies, and why we will probably never know. Vingegaard later crashed out with a broken collarbone, so we ask whether the two are linked, and the extent to which this is a wake-up call for cycling (and some of its fans), or just more of the same?
• (00:59:36) And finally, the Commonwealth Games open in Glasgow this weekend, pared back to ten sports and stuck behind a paywall. Did anyone notice? Has the world moved on? We say a fond, faintly baffled farewell.

Links

• Some stats from the one-sided World Cup Final
• How the Mile was won: Some analysis of Kerr's record, including the splits Gareth read out
• Some details on Josh Kerr's custom shoe
• Ross' brief thoughts on the early morning testing controversy on X
• More detail on the exemption made, judicial approval and nature of suspicions (good), along with some speculation about Seixas and a call for transparency (silly)
• Vingegaard's team on the crash and possible reasons for it

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Show notes

This week our headline topic is a "concussion sensor" being trialled by some teams at the Tour de France, and why it is a welcome innovation, but one that, for now, invites potentially dangerous false hope. We also take a spin through the rest of the week in sport, covering football, cycling, tennis and track and field. Oh, and hotdogs.

• (00:00:20) The World Cup nears its finale, and Spain utterly outplayed France to reach the final, making fools of our predictions after Gareth handed France to Ross. We get into why the France-Spain dynamic flipped so completely, the scarcity of penalty shootouts this tournament, the mooted expansion to 64 teams, hydration-break ad money paying for the broadcast rights, the ref cam, and the goal-line technology row over the England-Norway "wire" incident.
• (00:16:18) Following our David Bailey podcast, we ask whether the peloton is simply scared of Tadej Pogačar, whose dominance at the Tour has riders like Ben Healy and Florian Lipowitz shaking their heads in bewilderment. We also unpack why "marginal gains" and sports science only ever matter as a point of difference, borrowing points-of-parity and points-of-difference thinking from marketing.
• (00:24:16) Our headline piece. A "concussion" sensor sitting behind the helmet's BOA dial is being trialled by some teams the Tour, and we explain why the name is a dangerous misnomer. A helmet-mounted device measures helmet acceleration, not the brain, may be triggered off by cobbles, and can never be diagnostic. We explain that it could be used as a triage tool, not a diagnostic one that replaces road-side assessments. Drawing on rugby's mouthguard data, hundreds of thousands of head-acceleration events with poor sensitivity and predictive value, and the case of Torstein Traen, who passed a roadside check yet was later diagnosed with concussion, Ross explains that this is a genuine safety opportunity, but only if cycling gets the framing and the use of it right.
• (00:40:06) A wrap of the Wimbledon finals, with remarkable mental resilience from the new women's champion Linda Noskova, and Jannik Sinner's dominant serve. We look at Sinner's serve speed and placement, and how Zverev manages type 1 diabetes on court.
• (00:45:53) A rush of track action from the Monaco Diamond League, including Emmanuel Wanyonyi's 1000m world record and a brave but doomed attempt at the 3000m WR by Birke Haylom, who paid for what ended up being a pacing error by coming last. We also look ahead to the London Diamond League, headlined by Josh Kerr's much-hyped mile world record attempt, the women's 800m with Hodgkinson and Bol, and a stacked men's 800m.
• (00:57:50) Does South African rugby have a doping problem? A new positive for junior Springbok prop Kai Pratt, SAIDS rejecting the "witch hunt" framing, and Ross digs into the numbers: testing down more than six-fold in a decade, South Africa accounting for one in five rugby doping cases worldwide, and an anti-doping body whose budget has flatlined. We argue why "sour grapes" is no defence, and why the answer is to test more, not deflect.
• (01:04:57) And Finally, Joey Chestnut wins another July 4th hot dog title, with the Kobayashi method as competitive eating's "super shoes", and an Ironman in Swansea sends us down the rabbit hole of how organisers conjure those economic-impact and "media value" figures, plus the leader who rode straight into a stationary ambulance.

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Team NSN Cycling is one of the most exciting teams in the World Tour peloton, and Lausanne-based Briton David Bailey is its Head of Sport Science. Amid the pressures of being at the cutting edge of athletic performance, Bailey talks us through the current trends in pro cycling, including nutrition, training, health, tech, and even the role of AI and data management. Bailey has over 20 years of experience in elite sport as a coach, scientist, and performance director, I has supported world-class athletes, including multiple Olympic and World Champions. Bailey has also worked for the BMC and Bahrain Victorius pro cycling teams and comes with a wealth of knowledge and experience.

SHOW NOTES

Team NSN website

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Show notes

Most of us watch football and follow the ball. Football journalist Michael Cox watches the spaces, the shapes and the patterns that few others understand. As we build towards the FIFA World Cup Quarter-finals, Ross and Gareth sit down with one of the sharpest tactical analysts in football writing, and perhaps the best at explaining it. Whatever your level of interest, you'll come away seeing the game completely differently.

Cox runs the rule over all the major teams and players at this year's World Cup, dissecting and explaining their strengths, their weaknesses, and what will decide each tie. Along the way he unpacks the tactical questions casual fans never quite get answered: how France's individual brilliance differs from Spain's possession and shape, why Messi and Haaland barely run and how whole systems are built to let them save their bursts, the shift from man-marking to zonal defending, the risk-and-reward of a full-back charging forward the instant his team loses the ball, what "shape" even means, and why he's the most data-sceptical "data nerd" you'll meet.

Then the harder ground. What's holding back the development of African, South American and Asian football, and is the European academy machine now so dominant that its cast-offs are better than the players other nations produce at home? As for VAR, he explains what he'd change, why he thinks it's stripped the joy from celebrating a goal, and how one fan-owned league in Europe refuses to touch it.

Whether you live for football, or only watch the biggest games, this wide-ranging interview will change how you watch football.

Today's Guest: Michael Cox

Michael Cox founded the influential tactics site Zonal Marking in 2010 and is now a regular contributor to The Athletic. He's the author of two books — The Mixer, on the history of Premier League tactics, and Zonal Marking: The Making of Modern European Football.

He is a keen supporter of @KingstonianFC. You can follow him on X: @Zonal_Marking and BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/zonal-marking.bsky.social

Links

• Michael's bio page with The New York Times, containing links to all his articles (paywalled articles, unfortunately - selected articles to read for Members on Discourse)
• Michael's first book, The Mixer
• Zonal Marking: The Making of Modern European Football, his second book

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Show notes

In this week's Spotlight, Ross and Gareth take on the news:

• (00:02:00) Football World Cup: England survived altitude and Mexico, and Ross's numbers explain how — less total running, fewer sprints, the game deliberately slowed down. It's a collective pacing strategy dictated by physiology, not just tactics. Plus VAR is amplifying the chaos rather than ending it (Argentina's late smash-and-grab over Egypt, a sensor in the ball denying Croatia), and six African teams knocked out in the dying minutes.
• (00:28:00) Tour de France: our first read on the opening stages, and why the new team time trial format, where the rider's individual time counted, added genuine tactical intrigue.
• (00:31:00) The story that troubled us most: riders starting stages very sick in 40°C heat. After De Lie and Uijtdebroeks pushed on while ill, we discuss the incentives in elite high performance sport that put team doctors is unenviable and often compromised positions, and whether, as with concussion in rugby, sports governing bodies should step in to alleviate the conflicts faced by medics?
• (00:39:00) The science of pre-cooling: why INEOS sat in a row with their forearms in cold water. Ross explains the AVAs, the skin's heat-dumping shortcut, and why the water mustn't be too cold or you shut the whole thing down.
• (00:53:00) Record watch: Josh Kerr's unusual race-free build-up and his 3:42 fixation, Keely Hodgkinson's choppy season, and Faith Kipyegon's first 1500m/mile defeat in five years.
• (00:58:00) A cracking paper spotted by listener Steve O'Hale: 870,000 Berlin finishers show men are twice as likely to hit the wall as women. And, counter-intuitively, the faster the men, the more likely they are to blow up, relative to women. Ego or physiology? We dig in.
• (01:08:00) And finally: a 10-year-old tennis prodigy, homeschooled and training seven days a week. A feel-good story, or early specialisation and survivorship bias dressed up as one? Plus Wimbledon heads for it's 9th straight first time winner on the women's side.

Links

• Our football World Cup thread, for Supporters Club members, containing all the Mexico-England analysis and more discussion on the tournament
• Movistar under fire as Uijtdebroeks races on while ill
• The Stanford Glove - researchers thought they'd found a way to 'hack' cooling with a Zoolander like vacuum glove
• BBC article on Josh Kerr's 3:42 target preparations
• Kerr on the importance of psychology in his preparation
• The Nature paper on men vs women pacing strategies in the marathon

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Show notes

Formula 1 is one sport we've never properly tackled, so who better to guide us through it than a man who spent 25 years on the inside? Dom Riefstahl is a mechanical engineer who went straight from graduation into BMW's F1 programme, later moving to the Sauber F1 team and then to the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 outfit, where he worked with seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton. Riefstahl now keeps his eye on the ball as an F1 pundit for Luxembourg public broadcaster RTL.

In this interview, Riefstahl takes us inside the world's most sophisticated sport, and, in particular, the fascinating triangle among driver, engineer, and car. He explains how a driver's feel for the car is translated into action by engineers armed with 400 sensors and 40 000 channels of data, why the great drivers are the ones who can tell whether a problem comes from their own driving or from the car itself, and how a top driver sometimes feels things the technology can't yet measure. Along the way, we learn what it costs to develop a driver from karting to an F1 seat, why reaction time can quietly end a career, why the truly great champions are hypersensitive about everything from tyre temperatures to wafts of garlic, and why the driver you're most likely to have a pint with will probably never be world champion.

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Show notes

A bonus hype show ahead of Sunday's World Cup round of 16 between Mexico and England, where altitude has become the story everyone is talking about. Sparked by Thomas Tuchel's lament over a FIFA rule and the team's potential "smash and grab" altitude adaptation theory, Ross explains why the idea of sneaking in and out before altitude bites has no supporting evidence at all. You only ever get better from the moment you arrive, and so FIFA compelling England to travel earlier is quietly helping them!

From there, Ross unpacks the physiology: lower air pressure, less oxygen reaching the muscles, a compromised VO2 max ceiling, and everything performed at a higher relative intensity. Drawing on repeated-sprint studies and FIFA match data from Mexico's altitude venues, he builds and tests a hypothesis, that visiting teams run less at high speed and make fewer sprints, with a dose-dependent decline as altitude rises. The small, admittedly limited study illustrates how Mexico's altitude adapted advantage might manifest in sprint and high speed running differences from the start, getting progressively larger. Ross closes on what England can realistically do tactically to respect the physiology.

Links

• The Guardian article on England's foiled smash-and-grab paradigm, fortunately for them!
• This is the study I've seen cited in support of the late-arrival theory, even though its conclusion actually refutes the advantage!
• A study showing that you only get better, over 6h, 17h and then 48h, so get in as soon as you can
• Another one, this time over longer time frames, looking at how we improve with more time at altitude
• Brosnan study on repeat sprint interactions with altitude and rest period
• 
  

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Show notes

This week's Spotlight checks in on our global durability study, takes another lap of the World Cup, visits the Diamond League in Paris, previews the Tour de France and its heat challenge, and ends with saltwater crocodiles.

In this show:

• Our listener durability study is underway (members only!), and Ross and Gareth compare notes after completing the first session, a brutal five minute TT plus 20 minute FTP protocol. Ross explains why you have to drain the anaerobic battery before the 20 minute test, why pacing a time trial on your own is harder than you think, and why the biggest limitation in the study might not be physiology
• The World Cup is into the knockout rounds and listener Robert Ridley has done the maths on whether teams that go to extra time are at a disadvantage in the next game. The answer might be yes, about 1.5x more likely to lose if they play a team who hadn't had ET the game before, but we discover the confounding factor that complicates that finding
• A proposal resurfaced on Discourse and social media this week for a structural fix to extra time football, one that involves running the penalty shootout before the 30 minutes rather than after it. Ross explains where the idea came from, what the data says about goals in extra time, and why football fans on social media were not especially receptive
• Moving onto athletics, Audrey Werro ran 1:53.80 in Paris, another personal best that edges her closer to the oldest WR in the sport, but we explain why the record attempt fell short, and what her split data tells you about the mindset that Werro and Hodgkinson need to bring to their races to really threaten the WR. Femke Bol is now in the picture too, and her progression curve is worth paying close attention to
• Marco Arop ran 1:41.84 in the men's 800 and declared he is going for Rudisha's world record. We discuss whether the men's record might actually fall before the women's
• The Tour de France starts this weekend in temperatures forecast to exceed 40 degrees by the end of the first week. We discuss a study documenting rising temperatures at the race over the decades, why the UCI's heat protocols are again under scrutiny, and what the Tour's own route designer says about how he is now choosing routes specifically for shade
• UCI president Lappartient has floated the idea of reducing Tour de France team sizes from eight to six riders and introducing budget caps. The internet reacted badly, including a memorable contribution from Johan Bruyneel. We make the case that smaller teams might actually create more dynamic racing and more opportunities for smaller squads, with the acceptance that there are economic factors in play. But we wonder, why criticism is often so loud, but so empty?
• And finally, an IOC official has just discovered that the rowing venue for Brisbane 2032 is in a river that is also home to saltwater crocodiles. His suggested solution was a fence. We hope the rowers don't catch a croc...

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From muscle growth to a treatment for Alzheimers, creatine has been touted as the 'King of Supplements'. But what does the science say about one of the most researched products in sport? Enter Dr Eric S. Rawson, Chair and Professor of Health, Nutrition, and Exercise Science at Messiah University in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, who has spent two decades studying the effects of creatine on the brain and muscle. In this in-depth interview, Rawson breaks down the long history of creatine research, how it works, who it works best for, and the latest research into its cognitive benefits. Rawson has been an active member of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) since 1996, has served on the ACSM Board of Trustees and is a Fellow of the ACSM (FACSM). Dr Rawson has delivered more than 180 professional presentations, is co-editor of the text Nutrition for Elite Athletes, co-author of Nutrition for Health Fitness and Sport, and has authored/co-authored numerous articles and book chapters. His research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and various foundations.

SHOW NOTES

Rawson was involved in the IOC consensus papers on supplementation. Here is the latest of these, including a section on creatine

A systematic review and meta-analysis on creatine use, combined with resistance training

A review on safety concerns over creatine

The 13500 person review on the side effects of creatine use with long-term supplementation

Widely hailed as the original creatine paper, by Harris et al, this showed that supplementation with creatine could increase muscle stores significantly

Studies showing that muscular performance was enhanced by creatine supplementation

A recent scoping review explores the available evidence on the possible protective effect of creatine in concussion management

Disclosures from Dr Eric Rawson:

• Been taking creatine since 1992

• Have published/presented a fair bit about creatine and other supplements. You can see Eric’s research profile here

• Been fortunate to receive funding from NIH, various foundations, universities, and companies

• Current research funding: none

• Have received speaking honoraria for lectures that included creatine

• On SAB of Alzchem (studied creatine supplements for 20+ years first).

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British football journalist Ben Lyttleton literally wrote the book on football penalties. As the author of 'Twelve Yards: The Art and Psychology of the Perfect Penalty' and 'Edge: What Business Can Learn From Football', Lyttleton is arguably the world's leading authority on the subject. His encyclopedia-like and passionate knowledge of both the game of football and the controversial penalty, make this one of the most entertaining podcasts we have done yet. This podcast was first published in August, 2022, but is sure to be relevant to the final weeks of this year's edition as we head into the knockout stages.

SHOW NOTES:

The Twitter handle of our guest Ben Lyttleton: @benlyt, or https://twitter.com/benlyt

Ben’s website, Twelve Yards: https://twelveyards.substack.com/

Article on where to aim, high or low: https://twelveyards.substack.com/p/high-or-low-where-to-aim

Fascinating article with video on Neymar’s now illegal stop-start method, and his adjustments: https://twelveyards.substack.com/p/what-neymar-did-next

The curse of the superstar - why stars miss more penalties: https://twelveyards.substack.com/p/mbappe-culture-and-the-superstar

The study on English players’ failure in shootouts that kicked off this interview: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19058088/

Emotional contagion paper, and how player celebrations affect shootout results: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20544488/

The most famous penalty miss ever? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8WtxgFvvj0

The original panenka: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxXWIZULgyw

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This week's Spotlight focuses on the doping case of Marketa Vondrousova's four year ban for refusing to provide a sample during an out of competition test in 2025. We also return to the USA for some Football World Cup insights, cover some injury science with implications for Keely Hodgkinson's season, and issue a call to arms for members ahead of our durability experiment. Here's what's on the show today:

• A leg-breaking tackle in the Canada versus Qatar game sparked a debate among our listeners on Discourse that cuts to the heart of how sport punishes dangerous play. Should the sanction reflect what the player did, or what happened as a result? Ross draws on his rugby background to explain why outcome-based punishment is more common and more defensible than it first appears, and why intent is almost impossible to use as a standard
• Travel demands at the World Cup are discussed by a listener in this article - we ask whether this could be decisive to the outcome, which takes us on a journey into travel load and its implications for performance
• The momentum graphics appearing on screen during World Cup broadcasts continue to prompt discussion among our listeners. We explore how they actually work, why they might be interesting to fans but are almost certainly meaningless to coaches, and what question you would need to answer before you could trust them at all?
• Our main feature is former Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova, now banned for four years for refusing a doping test. We explain why the anti-doping system has to treat a refusal as the equivalent of a positive test, why her own social media post on the night made things worse for her, and why comparing her ban to the Sinner and Swiatek cases misses the point entirely
• Keely Hodgkinson withdrew from the 400 metres at the UK Athletics Championships in tears after experiencing "hamstring tightness" before the race. We explore why, even if this turns out to be nothing, the pattern of recurring hamstring tightness is worth paying close attention to, and shares the sobering statistics on hamstring re-injury rates and risk factors that make this more than just a precautionary withdrawal
• World Rugby has permanently approved a lower tackle height for community rugby, but with a catch: different unions can choose between the waist and the sternum as their legal limit. We discuss why that flexibility exists, what it means in practice, and what would have to be agreed before any change could come to the elite game
• A cyclist suffered a concussion during the Tour de Suisse and continued racing for several more stages. Gareth's initial reaction is that it's another policy failure by the UCI, but we discuss it and discover a number of scenarios that would explain how it happened without any fault from the UCI
• And finally, a call to action for members. Our Applied show this Friday will cover durability, and we are turning it into a live global experiment. Over the coming weeks we will be asking supporters to complete a set of time trials on the bike, and we will use that data to build your power duration curve, work out your W prime, and calculate your durability index. All the details will be on Discourse and Discord for members

Oh, and why is Messi so comparatively poor at penalties? Our previous guest Ben Lyttleton shares a piece he wrote on why the best ever is average from the spot!

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Show notes

• The Football World Cup is underway, and hydration breaks have been one of the early storylines. We discuss whether they are a genuine player welfare initiative, or a (very) thinly veiled advertising slot, whether there will ever be evidence they are changing the dynamics of matches, the concept of momentum (real or imagined?), and why a combination of heat and end of season fatigue might explain some lacklustre performances so far?
• Teenage phenoms had mixed fortunes in the Diamond League last week. Cooper Lutkenhaus flew (literally, across the line) to another win, this time over the Olympic champion in the 800m, while Gout Gout stuttered in his Diamond League 200m debut. Gout partly bounced back in Ostrava, but he highlights again the challenge of unrealistic expectations.
• Speaking of Ostrava, Werro was fast again, while Bol impressed in her debut, but is, for now, a generation and 3 seconds behind the big two. Can she improve enough to legitimately challenge them, and what will it take for Werro and Hodgkinson to get closer to that WR, from a pacing and race strategy perspective? We discuss.
• A genuinely wild NCAA Championships in Eugene produced what might be the best single meeting of sprint performances in history, headlined by a shock 110m hurdles world record from 20 year old Ja'Kobe Tharp. We work through the collegiate records that fell in the 400, 200 and 100, and ask when next these athletes will run as fast as they did last week?
• Adaejah Hodge was one outstanding performer, clocking the 5th fastest time ever over 100m, a 10.63s. Her backstory asks some uncomfortable questions about a secret doping ban, a case resolution agreement, and a high school coach who was the target of the investigation. We unpack the details and ask whether the sport is getting the trade-offs right?
• Letrozole, fertility treatment, and an unusually candid announcement from double world champion Gudaf Tsegay explain why her four month doping suspension is one of the more sympathetic cases we have covered
• Remco Evenepoel's threshold power numbers were revealed in his latest YouTube video, and we discuss what 425 watts for an hour actually means heading into the Tour de France, why durability rather than fresh power might decide the race, and why the one hour threshold power may be less of an issue for the Belgian than his 20 to 40 min climb power
• And finally, some good news from the Discourse community: Supporter club member Sophie coached an athlete using some of the heat adaptation advice from our listener community to help prepare for altitude, and the athlete went on to win a European uphill running title by over two minutes

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In this show:

• Switzerland's Audrey Werro delivered a stunning plot twist in the women's 800m, running the third fastest time in history (1:53.98) in Stockholm to beat a personal best from Keely Hodgkinson. Suddenly the world record conversation has two names in it. We discuss Werro's emergence and potential, the tactical error that may have cost Hodgkinson slightly, and what this means for the possibilities that the oldest world record in the sport falls this year
• Where does Femke Bol fit into all this? The Dutch 400m hurdles star changed events in search of new challenges, but the event is evolving so fast that the challenge looks significantly greater and she's not even raced outdoors yet! We discuss whether her 400 meter speed is a genuine weapon or whether the 400-800 double is as rare as it is for good reason
• Cooper Lutkenhaus is the most exciting teenager in track and field, already a world indoor champion, and now a Diamond League winner. We talk about his pedigree and potential, with Gareth nothing a multi-sport background that augurs well for his longevity. Challenges and 'road bumps' await, but he has a ceiling that may lie beyond the current world record
• Kirsty Coventry said she doesn't believe in paying Olympic athletes, and it has not landed well. Global Athlete has responded with a proposal for interim payments and a breakdown of the IOC's finances that is staggering. The IOC is sitting on nearly five billion dollars in reserves, and Global Athlete are asking for eight percent of the Paris broadcasting revenue. We ponder why Coventry made that statement knowing it would invite significant blowback, and what it reveals about the pressure she is under from inside the IOC. We also speculate on whether there are any good reasons to avoid paying Olympic athletes
• Anna van der Breggen lost the women's Giro on the final day from the pink jersey, her second Grand Tour lead lost this year. We explore why smaller team sizes in the women's peloton make tactical racing both more unpredictable and more compelling, and why the women's Tour de France is shaping up to be exceptional
• The UCI's weekly rule update: no more front jersey pockets, bike computers limited in size, finishing straights must now be at least 200 meters, and an appeal against the Belgian court ruling on gear ratios. We work through each one, pick out the ones that make sense and the ones that really don't, and ask again why the SAFER data hasn't been made public to respond some of the criticisms the UCI are receiving
• Christian Eriksen collapsed again during an international friendly, this time saved by his implantable cardioverter defibrillator. Ross explains what the device actually does, how often it fires appropriately versus inappropriately, and why Erikison's second event raises serious questions about whether continuing to play is tenable
• And finally, a listener on Discourse solved the mystery of why Shohei Ohtani's baseball salary looked so low on the Forbes rich list. The answer involves 68 million dollars per year deferred over a decade, void years, ghost contracts, and some of the most creative accounting in professional sport

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This week's Spotlight opens in Paris, where Roland Garros has delivered one of the most chaotic and compelling Grand Slams in recent memory, and ends on a Las Vegas track with a promise of $10 million unlikely to be fulfilled. Along the way, we explore retirements and comebacks, bike weight scandals, regulatory issues and a surprising way to boost your red blood cells.

In today's Show:

• For the first time in the Open era, not a single former Grand Slam champion reached the men's round of 16. Ross and Gareth try to make sense of a tournament turned on its head by epically long five-set matches, multiple two-set-up defeats, and the emergence of potential new stars to challenge the duopoly atop men's tennis
• Sinner is gone, Djokovic is gone, and the heat played a starring role. We revisit our applied show on heat adaptation to explain exactly why Sinner's implosion was both predictable physiologically, but surprising in its speed and persistence
• Serena Williams has accepted a wildcard to play doubles at Queen's at 44. We explore the motivations for her return, and discuss why elite athletes retire in the first place? A thread on Discourse sparked by James gets us exploring the psychology and physiology of retirement, and why the grind we don't see is often the cause
• In cycling, Lorena Wiebes was disqualified from the women's Giro after her bike allegedly weighed in 20 grams under the UCI's 6.8kg minimum. Was the punishment proportionate? Is the UCI's measurement process up to the required standard? Are SD Worx guilty of playing it too close to the limit? We discuss.
• A Belgian court has ruled against the UCI's attempt to impose gear ratio limits on the sport, finding the regulation neither necessary nor proportionate. We explore the implications well beyond cycling, and ponder how the UCI's failure to present a clear justification for the regulation was ultimately its undoing
• Tilting your bed by six degrees could raise your EPO levels by 13% and increase hemoglobin mass by nearly 5%. Ross unpacks a genuinely fascinating new study, explaining why the mechanism is the same as altitude and heat training, whether the effect will be additive in athletes, and whether elite athletes are already quietly propping up their headboards
• A carbohydrate question from supporter Tony ahead of his national canoe championships: does glycogen depletion in one muscle group affect availability elsewhere? Ross explains the elegant logic of local storage and use, the lactate shuttle, and why liver is the unsung hero of endurance fuelling
• And Finally, the Enhanced Games have announced a $10 million bonus for anyone who breaks Usain Bolt's 100m world record at their 2027 event. We discuss whether that will be enough to entice the truly fast man to race, doped or clean, and what it might mean for athlete's participation in the Olympics following an Enhanced Games

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In our Spotlight this week:

• The heat wave in Paris is making life very difficult at Roland Garros, with Casper Ruud describing himself as "walking around like a zombie" during his first round match. We explore the physiology of heat regulation in tennis, how safety policies are developed to protect players, explain why heat changes the tactical and technical nature of play, and what can be done to help players without handing out free passes to those less well prepared
• Sean Ingle joined us recently to talk about the Enhanced Games. We share our thoughts as the dust settles, with more reflection on why the premise of trustworthiness was never really delivered, the money that is turning athlete's heads, and Gareth walks back a few things he said in the heat of the moment
• We explain the deliberate logic behind World Athletics' new qualification standards, and what it means for athletes without a good agent or a seat at the Diamond League table
• Rugby and concussion are in the Spotlight again with two research developments. First, a group of researchers is promising a new evidence-backed head impact assessment protocol for women's players. Ross doesn't know exactly what that means, and we discuss what is already known about women's susceptibility to concussion. Then, a new study out of Ireland provides the first published evidence that lowering the legal tackle height in rugby has reduced concussion and overall injury rates at community level. Ross, who has been directly involved in the process, explains what we now know, what still needs work, and why a 20% drop, scaled across tens of thousands of players, is a genuinely meaningful public health win
• Can an athlete still compete professionally in multiple sports at the highest level? A great question from listener Robert to our Discourse community (another reason to join our supporters club for more!) sparks a wide-ranging conversation, from Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders to Rebecca Romero and Elise Perry — and why early specialisation has made the whole idea increasingly impossible
• Forbes has released its top 10 highest-paid athletes of 2026. Ross and Gareth play a guessing game, reflect on what the list says about the business of sport, money and sex, and note that no woman made the top 50.

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Show notes

The Enhanced Games came and went in Las Vegas, amidst much hype, a host of personal bests but only a single world record. Was the event a success, and a taste of what is to come, or a spectacular flop? What do we make of allegedly clean athletes beating dopers, and dopers failing to challenge world records, often by large margins? As the sports world figures out what to make of it, Sean Ingle, chief sports reporter and columnist for The Guardian, joins us fresh from attending the event to share his experiences, thoughts and unfiltered verdicts.

Sean went in expecting grifters, but discovered something a little more complicated. He spoke to true believers of the "human enhancement" movement, billionaire backers, and athletes who made business decisions that may become increasingly difficult for other sports to ignore. Sean relates those conversations and his impressions of what they imply for the future of sport.

We ask the harder questions too. Will the Enhanced Games grow or stall? What are the risks if the business model that uses athletes to promote drugs for anti-aging purposes succeeds? And what lessons must traditional sport take from an event where athletes averaged $166,000 in a single night, and where the phone of at least one Olympic swim coach hasn't stopped ringing since?

Sean has placed his own sportsman's bet with one of the funders, Christian Angermeyer, that the Enhanced Games won't survive past 2031. He explains why he believes this, despite factors that suggest that "enhancement" is here to stay, and why he'd still rather be wrong than just ignore it.

Links

Some of Sean's articles on The Enhanced Games

• Why he believes The Enhanced Games will fail by 2031
• The questions Sean wrote will need answering prior to his visit to Vegas
• Initial reactions from Vegas on the night of the Games
• The Enhanced Games reject the timing controversy as "drivel"

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Show notes

On the decks today:

• A new paper raises "substantial concerns" about the tool that is regularly used to diagnose a progressive neurodegenerative disease in contact sport athletes. We discuss the paper, and how the discourse around brain health of retired contact sport athletes has created anxiety and fear to the detriment of the athletes
• The Women's Six Nations concluded, England winning it again with victory over France. We discuss the tournament, with Ross raising concerns about one-sided contests through, and the total stratification of teams, while Gareth is more optimistic about some statistical trends that suggest progress, at least on the part of some teams
• On the subject of women's rugby, the trials for a smaller ball have received more criticism from international players. Ross explains how the process is run, why nobody is being ambushed, and how the smaller ball has been explored for six years and counting to get to this point
• Janik Sinner won another Masters tournament last week, breaking the record for most wins (now at six tournaments, and 34 matches, with only three lost sets). Gareth wonders what can possibly deny the Italian a French Open and Wimbledon, now that Alcaraz is missing both those Slams? Ross reckons maybe muscle cramps can defeat him...
• A listener, Andrew, asked an intriguing, and unanswerable question in our Supporter community - which sport would it be best to be elite at? And which is worst? We offer our thoughts and criteria for what qualifies the sport
• And Finally, the Enhanced Games are on Sunday, and Sean Ingle is attending. We offer our thoughts on what we'd most like to see happen at the Vegas circus. One swimmer is taking some precautions in anticipation of the side-effects, and we promise to revisit the performances in next week's show

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Show notes

In the news this week:

• Operation Obsidian - A collaborative investigation between WADA and World Rugby produces a big doping bust in Georgian rugby, revealing collusion and corruption, but to what end? We explain how almost 40 years of bans were given out, and what remains unanswered and unknown
• (00:16:18) SA Prop Asenathi Ntlabakanye has been banned for 18 months, for drugs he says were prescribed by a specialist physician. We explore why this case may run for some time, and have some major implications
• (00:26:15) The women's Vuelta finished atop the Angliru, producing a new champion and some chat about gear ratios and torque. Plus, concussion in the Giro, with dramatic crashes and racing igniting the race in its first week
• (00:41:52) Who is the Greatest of all time? Sports scientists set out to take the subjectivity out of the question and produce their lists of the greatest track athletes ever. Do you agree?
• (00:54:25) A Times survey says a worryingly high proportion of young adults are using banned, harmful products. We wonder about the risk of doping and how the Enhanced Games will amplify it
• (01:09:20) Gout Gout gets his (latest) 60 minutes of fame. As his star continues to rise, good things are being said, now the performances will follow. We discuss the hype and unrealistic expectation that is steadily building on Australia's superstar
• (01:15:35) Who wins a half marathon between Luke Littler and Mo Farah, if they have to complete a 501 leg of darts every mile? A ridiculous question, perfect for Gareth to bring his pub darts experience to the fore! Who do you think wins?

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Show notes

In today's Spotlight, a spin around the world of sports news, and some listener questions answered:

• A look back at the World Relay Championships from Botswana, featuring some of the greatest relay performances ever seen, including from some unheralded names
• London Marathon statistics, courtesy a pair of analyses that shed light on how we pace marathons, and how few actually get it right
• The fine line between regulating and strangling innovation in sport, after Coe speaks about super shoes in running
• Speaking of innovation, do the Enhanced Games count? We look ahead to that event with some thoughts from Sean Ingle's latest article
• We tell you why we think Paul Seixas going to the Tour de France is the right decision and discuss the risks people had offered against it
• Listener JRB asks a question about training with carbohydrates, and whether there's any merit in a 'train low, compete high' high approach when it comes to carbs?
• Still on the subject of carbs, what's the deal with fructose? Listener Phillip asks about its role in the carbohydrate model, and we explore some theory and practical advice
• A smaller ball is being trialled in women's rugby - at least one player is very unhappy about it. We discuss
• In the AFL, teams will be mandated to employ psychologists full-time in response to an incident featuring a player. Is that the right call? In some ways, but Ross has some reservations

Links

• London Marathon statistical analysis
• Sebastian Coe speaks on Super Shoes and innovation
• Sean Ingle's articles on the Enhanced Games - the questions he'd ask them if he could go
• Seixas to the Tour
• "The worst decision someone has ever made" - Harrison is not pleased about a smaller ball in women's rugby
• The AFL mandates that clubs employ full time psychologists

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How reliable is Artificial Intelligence (AI) when it comes to health, wellness and training advice? Writer, educator and Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, Dr Nick Tiller, recently led a research study entitled "Generative artificial intelligence-driven chatbots and medical misinformation: an accuracy, referencing and readability audit." which focused on the feedback and information given by AI in this vital space. Tiller and his team looked at the technology behind AI, how information is delivered and then tracked the validity of the information based on sound, scientific evidence. The results were disturbing, but Tiller still has some advice on how best to use AI when it comes to our own health.

Tiller is a research associate at the Lundquist Institute, Harbor-UCLA Medical Centre and is the author of two books: The Skeptic's Guide to Sports Science (Taylor & Francis), which was named one of Book Authority's "Best Sports Science Books of All Time," and The Health and Wellness Lie (Bloomsbury), described as "the systematic dismantling of a trillion-dollar con."

​​​​With a master's in kinesiology, Tiller worked as a performance physiologist on the UK’s Olympic programme before earning his doctorate in Applied Physiology from Brunel University London. He has since held academic posts in the UK and Los Angeles, where his research at the prestigious Lundquist Institute focuses on exercise physiology, respiratory medicine, and the science of extreme exercise - a field he knows firsthand as an accomplished ultramarathon runner. His recent work examines health misinformation and questionable research practices.

​​​​A prominent voice in science communication, Tiller writes for Skeptical Inquirer and Ultra-Running Magazine and serves as associate editor for the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism. He's authored more than 150 general-audience articles and is a frequent guest on television, radio, and podcasts. In 2023, he was named a Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry for his commitment to promoting science literacy and critical thinking.

SHOW NOTES

Nick Tiller and his colleagues' paper on the performance of AI in response to health and exercise questions

The BBC story based on Tiller and Co's Paper

Dr Nick Tiller's Website

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Show notes

Sebastian Sawe's astonishing 1:59:30 marathon world record is in the spotlight today, as Gareth and Ross go deep into the physiology, technology and history of running to explore every angle. How was the race actually run, and what do the splits tell us about Sawe and predict about the future? How did Sawe shatter a barrier that had seemed impossible for so long? What role did the latest super shoes play, and how did they make fools of historical predictions by many, including Ross? To what extent is this performance credible given Sawe's proactive AIU doping initiative? How did the protagonists fuel their efforts? And what next for Kejelcha and Kiplimo, whose extraordinary performances were diminished by Sawe's shadow, and for the marathon over the coming year? If you're looking for the full picture, our Spotlight will reveal all of it.

Also: Carlos Alcaraz is injured again and will miss the defence of his Roland Garros title. Is this the shape of a future derailed by injury, and what does he need to change to build the durability of those before him? Plus, Allyson Felix is eyeing a comeback at LA 2028; we discuss her chances.

Links

• Letsrun article on their 2013 prediction and how it was disproven by the recalibration in the marathon
• Sean Ingle's views in the aftermath of the breakthrough
• Michael Joyner on the perfect physioloyg for a sub-2 hour marathon
• Ross' own dismissal of the sub-2 as imminent, before the game was recalibrated by the shoes
• A look at Sawe's fuelling strategy from Marathon Handbook
• Kejelcha's fuelling from Chris Chavez
• Alcaraz out of the French Open
• Allyson Felix has her sights set on LA 2028

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English sports psychologist Dr Josie Perry delves into the mental challenges that often hold sportspeople back from success. From the role of our own mental threats to the traits that are present in successful athletes. Perry offers a fascinating insight into the psychology of performance. The team also delve into the prevalence of ADHD in top-performing sportspeople, why mental toughness may not be a good thing, how training can help us overcome mental blocks and the role of techniques like visualisation and mantras. Perry is a chartered psychologist working with top performers in sport, on stage, and in business. Perry has a background in communications and behaviour change, having worked for many years in journalism, marketing, public relations and crisis communications across private corporations and government. She has an MSc in Communications, an MSc in Psychology and an MSc in Sport and Exercise Psychology. She also has a PhD in Political Communications.

She is a Chartered member of the British Psychological Society (BPS) and a member of the Association of Applied Sports Psychologists (AASP). She is registered with the Health Care Professions Council. She writes features for sports magazines and websites and is regularly quoted in the media on how athletes and other performers can use applied sports psychology to enhance their performance.

Check out more on Dr Perry HERE

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Kenya's Sabastian Sawe has absolutely obliterated the two hour marathon barrier, winning the London Marathon in 1:59:30. In this emergency podcast, Mike and Ross talk about a truly historic day that saw two men go under two hours, We discuss a performance that is astonishing not only for the final time, but the matter in which it was constructed, with never seen before splits over 5km, 10km and half-marathon. We also talk about the credibility of the performances, given Sawe's documented funding of a more intensive anti-doping programme, and wonder whether this will open the door to many more sub-2 performances in the future?

Show notes

• The article on Sawe's more intensive anti-doping programme
• Sean Ingle's article on Sawe's performance

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Show Notes

The Spotlight today is heavily focused on an historically fast Boston Marathon, which saw an incredible 2:01:52 for defending champion John Korir. It obliterated the course record, with the podium all going under Geoffrey Mutai's 2:03:02 from 2011. It's been called one of the "truly great" marathon performances, but Ross isn't so sure. We try to put it into context, given Boston's occasional propensity to produce exceptional conditions, with a tailwind that not only cancels out the impact of its hills, but overcomes them to create freak times. We dive into both the men's and women's performances, discuss some of the remarkable stats of the day, and ponder exactly where Korir's performance lies?

Also out of Boston, Tim Noakes watched the race, and because he didn't see Korir or Sharon Lokedi, the women's winner, take in any carbohydrates during the race, the obsession with carbs is misplaced, and elites don't use them the way we are told. We discuss that theory, offering a grain or two of truth, based on what we actually saw the elites do in the race, to point out that "science by TV watching" is a pretty bad idea, unless you want to show how little you care for facts.

Also in the show, England's Red Roses Rugby team dominate the sport more than perhaps any other team in history. But this has become a potential issue for the growth of the women's game, and we wonder how any other nations will catch up given Englands enormous first-mover advantage in the professionalization of the women's game?

There's a fascinating doping story emerging in women's tennis, where former Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova revealed the she refused a doping test last year because of a combination of the Doping Control Officer failing to identify himself, and anxiety and an acute stress reaction. All is not necessarily as it seems, and we look back at that incident in the light of Vondrousova's own telling of it last year. On the subject of anxiety and mental health, AFL player Elijah Holland had a mental health episode leading up to, and during a game last week, and is now receiving treatment. We wonder how such cases occur in elite sports environments where the player's are so closely monitored, and what it means for duty of care of athletes?

And finally, Gareth has some observations about robots that now run half-marathons faster than humans, and Ross has thoughts on tech use in sport, drawing from some great innovation in fencing.

Timestamps

Boston - 01:52

Fuelling - 23:10

Womens Rugby - 42:39

Doping 52:25

AFL Duty of Care - 01:06:35

And Finally Some Tech - 01:14:17

Links

• Letsrun discuss the wind, and how the elite men made the most of it to run extraordinary times in Boston 2026
• Letsrun analysis of the men's race. And the women's race. Both full of interesting stats as discussed in the show
• The tweet that sparks the analysis of what elite runners actually did during the race, and why "science based on TV watching" is a pretty bad idea
• Article on the dominance of the Red Roses: Great for them, not so good for the global game
• For supporters only: Discussion of the Vondrousova doping case
• How was Elijah Holland allowed to keep playing?
• Record breaking robots. But can they do it on the cobbles...?

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Show notes

This week, we kick off in Roubaix, where Wout van Aert and Franziska Koch won the prestigious cobbled Monuments. For van Aert, in particular, it was the culmination of a "life's work", in a dramatic, very fast, and very eventful race that featured multiple technical issues for leading contenders. We look back on the races, and at the tech issues that befell the riders, and the tech that was disallowed from even being used. Staying on cycling, the UCI threatened podcaster Benji Naesen with the possibility of 'criminal action' for posts and comments they suggested were injurious to them, without specifying those posts. We discuss the letter, and why the UCI's actions have backfired so badly, with thoughts on how engagement with the community should and could look for constructive dialogue.

We then shift gears, and chat briefly about Rory McIlroy's Masters defence, and some data on performance and physiology that lay behind his victory. Weather doping comes up because once again, Ramona produced record-breaking discus performances, and in Australia, Gout Gout (and six other men) used perfect conditions in the final of the Australian 200m championships to run PBs, Gout leading the way with an exceptional 19.67s. We talk about that time, and why everyone may need to calm down and manage expectations despite the expected breakthrough from sprintings teen phenom.

We end on the roads, as Boston looms large and London follows on, to discuss the elite fields, and one athlete in particular - Sebastian Sawe - who has made it a personal mission to restore credibility to his performances by requesting and funding much more regular drug testing.

And finally, an amateur turns elite to chase a swimming time set by his fathere in 1976. We discuss Adam Wilkie's campaign, and wonder what the chances of success are?

Links

• Why did the UCI ban Visma's tyre inflation technology?
• Benji Naesen gets a letter from the UCI with a not-so-friendly warning to rein in the criticisms
• Performance analysis of McIlroy's Masters win, despite way worse than average driving
• Some of McIlroy's Whoop data from the final round at Augusta
• Gout Gout runs 19.67s, but any reasonable discussion seems impossible
• A good Letsrun analysis of Gout's performance and progression
• Another good Letsrun article on Sawe's self-funded doping controls and pursuit of performance credibility
• Adam Wilkies' son attempting "the impossible"

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Norway is one of the most advanced sporting nations in the world, thanks to a unique structure which allows athletes to access the latest science and coaching. The team speak to Oyvind Sandbakk, the Sports Director at the Norwegian School of Elite Sports and a Professor at the School of Sport Science at the UiT The Arctic University of Norway. A former World Cup cross-country skier himself, Oyvind has worked with many of Norway's top athletes in Nordic sports and talks in detail about the famed 'Norwegian Method', how the best minds combine to produce some of the best sportspeople in the world and what the future of sports training may look like.

SHOW NOTES

STUDY: Training session models from Norwegian coaches

STUDY: Best Practice Training Characteristics Within Olympic Endurance Sports, As Described By Norwegian World-Class Coaches

STUDY: The Evolution of World-Class Endurance Training: The Scientist’s View on Current and Future Trends

STUDY: Perspectives of World-Class Endurance Coaches on the Evolution of Athlete Training and Performance

STUDY: A paper Oyvind did on double-day training compared to single session

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In this Spotlight, we start on the cobbled roads of Belgium to explore why riding on cobbles is so hard, and how not so good vibrations compromise mechanical power, cost more energy and require more exertion to produce the same power output. It's Pogacar vs van der Poel, Round 3 this week on the cobbles of Roubaix, and we wonder whether smart tactics will be enough to overcome the Slovenian's firepower, and whether van der Poel's larger size may tilt the balance in his favour?

We discuss Jimmy Gressier's return, in Decathlon's own version of a super-shoe, as he runs an exceptional 5k road time. Speaking of Decathlon, a good week for the brand with Paul Seixas continuing his rise, this time with dominance in the Tour of the Basque Country, and hope for a challenger to Pogacar.

A new research paper suggests doping prevalence among University students of 13.7%, but it uses novel statistical methods to get there, after only 3.4% of the athletes admit to PED use. We discuss that study, and what it means for anti-doping knowledge. Less covert (but only a little) about doping are the athletes of the upcoming Enhanced Games, recently valued at $1.2 billion, but now being transparently spoken about as a 'product launch' for longevity and performance enhancement drugs. The recently disclosed peptide stack of one competitor, world's strongest man Mitchell Hooper, is the basis for a chat about the grift those Games.

Finally, our teen phenom watch list has two more names, 14-year old girls who broke 23s last week. Ross and Gareth wonder if the gap between adults and children is narrowing, or whether we're just caught in a cycle of noticing more and more such performances.

Links

• Study on the effect of vibrations on physiology during cycling
• Another study simulating vibrations, this time showing how much oxygen cost goes up
• Article on Gressier, including his struggles with chocolate after his World title last year
• World Athletics concept on the Marathon as a standalone event
• The Performance Enhancing drug survey that inspired our Bayesian stats discussion
• Zero positives in the 2026 Olympics - the clean games?
• Mitchell Hooper's peptide stack
• Forbes article on The Enhanced Games
• WADA's prohibited list

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Show Notes

In this Spotlight, we kick off with cycling, and wonder whether we're seeing a tactical evolution in cycling in response to long-range attacks. We also talk about Group 2 syndrome, and why elite cyclists could be a behavioural economist's ideal cohort. Cycling safety is in the Spotlight, after the inquest into the death of Muriel Furrer concludes, and new devices over-promise on risk reduction and head impact measurement.

In athletics, Josh Kerr is going for a mile world record, and it'll actually be legitimate, while teen phenom Gout Gout is in the news, though not for winning this time. We discuss how misplaced the general expectation of teenage progress is, and why we may be setting young talent up to fail, no matter how it succeeds. Speaking of failure, Albert Korir failed three drugs tests and confessed, and is now serving a ban. Do we even care?

And finally, another teenage phenom is in the news, as Indian 15-year old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi smashed a 15-ball half century to go with a 35-ball century last year. He's now old enough to play for India. But should he? That's a different question...

Links

• Article on the Muriel Furrer inquest
• A device claims to measure head impact to protect MTBers
• Josh Kerr going for the mile World Record
• Gout Gout beaten in what is described as an "upset", but that betrays unreasonable expectations
• Article on Albert Korir's positive tests and ban
• Why Sooryavanshi should not be fast-tracked into the Indian T20 squad

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The Absa Cape Epic is a 700km, eight-stage, two-man team mountain bike race renowned as one of the toughest and most prestigious in the world. But what does it take to win this event against some of the world's best mountain bikers? We spoke to Mike Posthumus, the Head of Performance for the Specialised Factory Racing Off-road team, about the preparation, recovery, race tactics, and behind-the-scenes work that helped his team of Matt Beers and Tristan Nortje win the overall title. From practical tips on recovery to the amazing stats behind the performance, this is a rare insight for anyone taking on a multi-stage endurance event.

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THIS IS A REPUBLICATION OF THE SAME PODCAST AS THURSDAY 26 MARCH ON THE IOC FEMALE SPORT POLICY

With apologies for confusion, after we published our most recent podcast on the IOC's new policy for women's sport, we realized the original file had an issue with the syncing of the two audio streams. That was fixed on the day, but the glitch has continued to affect some listeners, and so we are just republishing it here, so that we can be sure that the issue is resolved for what we think is an important podcast, not one we want to be unlistenable because of that problem. Thanks for listening!

Show notes

The International Olympic Committee, under its new President Kirsty Coventry, has announced new guidelines for eligibility in women's sport. The central decision is clear: the boundaries around women's sport will be protected, with no males — whether they identify as transgender or are athletes with specified differences of sex development (DSDs) — eligible to compete in the women's category. Women's sport is now female only.

This is a strong, unified position. The policy mandates the eligibility requirement across all Member Federations, establishing a central global standard that should help bring an end to the fragmentation that has affected the sporting landscape in recent years. It also sets out a clear process for determining eligibility: screening for the presence of the SRY gene, followed by further testing where needed to confirm the specific diagnosis, and then a decision on inclusion or exclusion. specifies that eligibility for women's sport must be confirmed through a process involving screening for a gene (SRY), followed by testing to diagnose the specific question, and then inclusion or exclusion.

This represents a significant moment for women's sport. It reverses generations of policies that allowed males into women's competition, often at the expense of fairness and safety. In this short podcast, we examine the finer details of the new policy, what remains unclear, how we arrived at this point, and what the changes may mean for sport and for female athletes going forward.

Links

The IOC policy

The IOC's statement accompanying the policy

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The International Olympic Committee, under its new President Kirsty Coventry, has announced new guidelines for eligibility in women's sport. The central decision is clear: the boundaries around women's sport will be protected, with no males — whether they identify as transgender or are athletes with specified differences of sex development (DSDs) — eligible to compete in the women's category. Women's sport is now female only.

This is a strong, unified position. The policy mandates the eligibility requirement across all Member Federations, establishing a central global standard that should help bring an end to the fragmentation that has affected the sporting landscape in recent years. It also sets out a clear process for determining eligibility: screening for the presence of the SRY gene, followed by further testing where needed to confirm the specific diagnosis, and then a decision on inclusion or exclusion. specifies that eligibility for women's sport must be confirmed through a process involving screening for a gene (SRY), followed by testing to diagnose the specific question, and then inclusion or exclusion.

This represents a significant moment for women's sport. It reverses generations of policies that allowed males into women's competition, often at the expense of fairness and safety. In this short podcast, we examine the finer details of the new policy, what remains unclear, how we arrived at this point, and what the changes may mean for sport and for female athletes going forward.

Links

The IOC policy

The IOC's statement accompanying the policy

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Show notes

Today the Spotlight falls on Therapeutic Use Exemptions, or TUEs, that are given to athletes when they have a medical condition that requires the use of an otherwise banned substance. Last week, the International Testing Agency published the record of TUE applications for 56 sports, going back six years, and we cast our eye on some of the notable drugs, sports and cases. We explore why Growth Hormone TUEs are prevalent in gymnastics, why stimulants top the list of substances, and open up some philosophical conversations about whether TUEs should be allowed at all?

Also in the show, a 'triathlon' of sports news, starting with cycling recaps of Milan San Remo where Pogacar produced an extraordinary display of dominance to win one of the two monuments missing from his resume, and from the Cape Epic, where women raced shorter distances than men this year, and we explore how the rationale for this is a little shaky. From the track, we look back at the World Indoor Championships from Poland, and in the pool, a World Record in the 50m warrants some musing on how records are fallen despite tech bans.

And finally, Gareth notes with some pleasure that NFL superstars where humbled by flag football specialists, reminding us that getting to the top of any sport is not an automatic right!

Links

• Thoughts on cycling and the need to question as read out by Gareth
• Cameron McEvoy's 50m freestyle world record
• The original ITA TUE Dashboard
• Paper from the Olympics showing prevalence < 1% in the Games
• The study on methylphenidate's performance enhancing effects
• Does gymnastics training inhibit growth in young girls?
• Intensive training and growth in female gymnasts
• Jon Pike's philosophy article on TUEs in sport
• World Boxing's statement on Lin Yu-Ting's eligibility
• Watch some NFL starts get bamboozled in flag football

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In this Spotlight, we run our eye and offer our insights on the world of sport, covering a range of sporting events. We start with the Six Nations, which went beyond the wire in a spectacular tournament that shows the health of "the product". We discuss the ongoing Cape Epic, where the pairs format throws up some pacing and tactical challenges for unbalanced teams. And we preview the year's first Monument, where Tadej Pogacar will have to test and challenge Mathieu van der Poel's durability and 5-min power to win the elusive title. We discuss the requirement for Pogacar and UAE to extend the efforts above FTP and even VO2max to climbs even before the Cipressa, in order to make van der Poel vulnerable to a five minute effort on the decisive Poggio climb.

Switching to running, we briefly discuss the remarkable 2:10 performance by Fotyen Tesfay in Barcelona, and why it's the de factor WR, but may be as questioned as the incumbent WR by Ruth Chep'ngetich. Another dramatic finish in Los Angeles, a marathon decided by 0.01s where the 'loser' went the wrong way, and didn't, apparently, take in a single gram of carbohydrates in the race.

While on the subject of dramatic finishes, recent research shows that the odds of a cardiac arrest are significantly higher in the final kilometer of running races (20km and half marathon). We compare that to triathlons, where the odds of cardiac arrests are way higher in the first part of the race, in the swim. We discuss the physiology and emotional reasons for these risk increases.

We then move into the resistance training space, to talk briefly about the American College of Sports Medicine's position stand on resistance training. It says what many people know, but challenges what a lot of people think, and the reaction has been enlightening!

And finally, a few short results and discussion points from around the world of sport, including an unprecedented reversal of an entire tournament result, and a rare "defeat" (on a technicality) for Johannes Klaebo in cross-country skiing

Links

• Relevant to the discussion on recovery after high intensity efforts, here's an article on how our 'battery' is recharged, or reconstituted
• Article on Fotyen's 2:10:51 marathon
• Good insights on Fotyen from Letsrun.com
• The research out of Paris showing the higher risk of cardiac events in the final kilometer of races
• A similar study on cardiac arrests in triathlon
• The LA Marathon finish and race are discussed in this article
• The ACSM Position Stand on Resistance Training
• Stuart Phillips' posts on the ACSM Position Stand on Resistance Training

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Show notes

This week's show kicks off in London, where Ross recently attended World Rugby's Annual Shape of the Game meeting. he shares some insider insights on topics including law change in the sport, what fans want, and the tensions rugby bosses are facing to grow the game. Staying on rugby, we discuss head injury management, after a few stories popped up in the world of rugby. In the first, a player was allowed to continue playing by the team doctor, but the referee stepped in to have the player removed with a concussion. In the second, a player admitted to 'cheating' the Head Injury Assessment screen back in 2017 to keep playing with a concussion. We discuss whether Rugby's policies to manage head injuries are working?

Shifting gears, we return to the snow of Milan Cortina, as Gareth noticed some interesting discussion about cross-country skiing, and whether 50km was too long because of the challenges it creates for athletes who run out of fuel. We talk about "hitting the wall", and the truth about how our bodies use carbohydrates versus fat during endurance exercise.

Then we talk doping. First, the UCI have asked its Testing Agency to catch a big name doper, with a feeling that the absence of positive tests isn't necessarily indicative of a clean sport, and their desire to catch a higher level rider apparently reflecting that realization. Staying on doping, Tara Moore is suing the WTA for $20 million after a series of bans, appeals and eventual bans for doping that she believes was inadvertently caused by meat contamination.

Our final doping conversation comes from Athletics, where a Member asks whether the records should be reset when they are suspected of being the result of doping. This would particularly affect the Women's record books. We discuss that, offering some insights into how they might justify the removal of some, but not all records, and whether it can feasibly be done.

And finally, there was drama in the USA last weekend, where race leaders followed the lead car off course, and eventually lost podium spots and prize money. Calls to award those athletes the prize money and places at the World Champs have been growing in volume, and we discuss why the logical solution is not all that tricky, despite the letter of the law standing in the way.

Links

• Anthony Watson admits to cheating the Concussion protocols to continue playing
• I mentioned the World Rugby Player Welfare Symposium, it's next week (9 to 11 Mach), it's online and it's free to everyone. Here are the details and programme
• Sexias power analysis - these guys generally get it pretty close
• Cycling is looking to catch a big name doper, according to the NYT
• Tara Moore's case against the WTA
• Keely Hodgkinson's interview with The Times
• Video of athletes going the wrong way in Atlanta

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Show notes

The Milan Winter Olympics concluded last weekend, and in this wrap show, Gareth and Ross look back at the overachievers, the underachievers, and the big stories from Milan, offering insights on who won, lost and captivated our attention. We crown the King of the Games, the best and worst-performing countries, nominate our best performances across the range of sports, from endurance to figure skating (via "stoke"). We also share our biggest disappointments, reflections on what the Winter Games need most, and give our overall ratings to an excellent, thoroughly enjoyable Games.

Links

• An article on the waxing woes of every team apart from Norway's
• Italian article on Tommaso Giacomel's cardiac arrhythmia and ablazione cardiaca (google translate do your thing)
• Some Mikaela Shiffrin interviews - speaking about winning without her influential father and a more upbeat one on the US morning talk show scene
• Federica Brignone on her injury and comeback to win Olympic gold
• Gareth said not to watch this, but in case you wish to ignore his advice, here's Kirsty Coventry and Bugs Bunny
• The highest paid female athletes in the world - Eileen Gu is 4, but look at the split on vs off

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Show notes

The Winter Olympics are a weekend from concluding, and so much has happened, it's been hard to keep up. But we try! In this show, we look at the Nutella doping defence of an Italian biathlete. We discuss the dramatic performance of favourite Ilia Malinin, who confessed to "traumatic thoughts" before his ill-fated free-skate performance in Milan.

There was no scoring controversy in that men's figure skating programme, but there have been in other events - Ice Dance and Big Air were affected by allegations of nationalistic bias, and then in the moguls, there was tie for gold, leading Ross to wonder about the credibility of a scoring system that uses subjective scoring to produce a tie down to the 1/100th of a point. Just share the gold, we reckon!

One athlete who has had no problems, either with pressure or opponents, is Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo, now the most decorated Winter Olympian ever, and basically unbeatable in shorter races. Can he deliver the 50km too? Another who has delivered on the promise is Jordan Stolz, though he was denied the 1500m speed skating gold. Reports of his cycling process have led to speculation that he could have a great career in cycling, should he fancy it. We discuss the barriers to that transition, and wonder how he might go about it.

Away from the Games, there's an indoor world record in the 800m, which augurs well for Keely Hodgkinson's longer term aspirations of the outdoor World Record, and which puts Femke Bol's aspirations into perspective. The head to head rivalry may be a season or two away - we explain why Bol needs more than a single season.

And Finally, we return to the snow, where Ski Mountaineering made its debut at the Olympics and left us feeling considerably underwhelmed and disappointed in the structure of the event.

Links

• The Nutella defense - report on Rebecca Passler's doping case
• The CAS 'non-decision' on Passler's case, but with a few details of what was being argued in her defence
• A New York Times article on Ostarine and accidental doping ($ paywalled)
• The research paper that arose out of the "sweat contamination" defence against an ostarine positive test
• Article on Malinin's free skate drama
• David Epstein's article on Malinin and choking
• Jordan Stolz the cyclist: An article discussing his prospects on two wheels
• Hodgkinson's 800m World Indoor Record

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