Video 3: On Sports Technology

Still, technology isn't the only thing pushing athletes forward.

While indeed we haven't evolved into a new species in a century, the gene pool within competitive sports most certainly has changed.

In the early half of the 20th century, physical education instructors and coaches had the idea that the average body type was the best for all athletic endeavors:

medium height, medium weight, no matter the sport.

And this showed in athletes' bodies.

In the 1920s, the average elite high-jumper and average elite shot-putter were the same exact size.

But as that idea started to fade away, as sports scientists and coaches realized that rather than the average body type,

you want highly specialized bodies that fit into certain athletic niches,

a form of artificial selection took place, a self-sorting for bodies that fit certain sports, and athletes' bodies became more different from one another.

Today, rather than the same size as the average elite high jumper, the average elite shot-putter is two and a half inches taller and 130 pounds heavier.

And this happened throughout the sports world.

In fact, if you plot on a height versus mass graph one data point for each of two dozen sports in the first half of the 20th century, it looks like this.

There's some dispersal, but it's kind of grouped around that average body type.

Then that idea started to go away, and at the same time, digital technology -- first radio, then television and the Internet --

gave millions, or in some cases billions, of people a ticket to consume elite sports performance.

The financial incentives and fame and glory afforded elite athletes skyrocketed, and it tipped toward the tiny upper echelon of performance.

It accelerated the artificial selection for specialized bodies.

And if you plot a data point for these same two dozen sports today, it looks like this.

The athletes' bodies have gotten much more different from one another.

And because this chart looks like the charts that show the expanding universe, with the galaxies flying away from one another,

the scientists who discovered it call it "The Big Bang of Body Types."

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How did digital technology change the nature of sports around the world? New technology made it possible for many more people to follow sports.

How have body types of shot-putters changed from the 1920’s to today? They are much bigger and taller today than they were in the 1920’s.

What does Epstein say about gene pool in sports? The gene pool within competitive sports has changed.

What was a result of moving towards more specialized body types? It accelerated a form of artificial selection for specialized bodies.

Which of the following best describes financial incentives? Being paid a lot of money.

Why do scientists call the discovery "The Big Bang of Body Types"? Modern athletes’ bodies began to rapidly look different from previous athletes’.

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An elite group has the best, most skilled or most experienced people.

Dispersal is the process of…spreading things over a wide area or in different directions.

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In the early half of the 20th century, physical education instructors and coaches had the idea that the average body type was the best for all athletic endeavors: medium height, medium weight, no matter the sport.

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In sports where height is prized, like basketball, the tall athletes got taller.

In 1983, the National Basketball Association signed a groundbreaking agreement making players partners in the league,

entitled to shares of ticket revenues and television contracts.

Suddenly, anybody who could be an NBA player wanted to be, and teams started scouring the globe for the bodies that could help them win championships.

Almost overnight, the proportion of men in the NBA who are at least seven feet tall doubled to 10 percent.

Today, one in 10 men in the NBA is at least seven feet tall, but a seven-foot-tall man is incredibly rare in the general population --

so rare that if you know an American man between the ages of 20 and 40 who is at least seven feet tall, there's a 17 percent chance he's in the NBA right now.

That is, find six honest seven footers, one is in the NBA right now.

And that's not the only way that NBA players' bodies are unique.

This is Leonardo da Vinci's "Vitruvian Man," the ideal proportions, with arm span equal to height.

My arm span is exactly equal to my height. Yours is probably very nearly so. But not the average NBA player.

The average NBA player is a shade under 6'7", with arms that are seven feet long.

Not only are NBA players ridiculously tall, they are ludicrously long.

Had Leonardo wanted to draw the Vitruvian NBA Player, he would have needed a rectangle and an ellipse, not a circle and a square.

So in sports where large size is prized, the large athletes have gotten larger.

Conversely, in sports where diminutive stature is an advantage, the small athletes got smaller.

The average elite female gymnast shrunk from 5'3" to 4'9" on average over the last 30 years,

all the better for their power-to-weight ratio and for spinning in the air.

And while the large got larger and the small got smaller, the weird got weirder.

The average length of the forearm of a water polo player in relation to their total arm got longer, all the better for a forceful throwing whip.

And as the large got larger, small got smaller, and the weird weirder.

In swimming, the ideal body type is a long torso and short legs.

It's like the long hull of a canoe for speed over the water.

And the opposite is advantageous in running. You want long legs and a short torso.

And this shows in athletes' bodies today.

Here you see Michael Phelps, the greatest swimmer in history, standing next to Hicham El Guerrouj, the world record holder in the mile.

These men are seven inches different in height, but because of the body types advantaged in their sports, they wear the same length pants.

Seven inches difference in height, these men have the same length legs.

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How does the ratio of 7-foot-tall men in the NBA compare to those in the general population? The ratio of 7-foot players in the NBA is much higher than the general population.

What contrast does Epstein draw between basketball players and gymnasts? While basketball players grew taller, gymnasts grew shorter.

Why are Michael Phelps and Hicham El Guerrouj’s body types strange compare to one another? Even though Phelps is much taller than EI Guerrouj, they have the leg length.

Why did NBA teams start scouring the globe for players? They wanted to find people with a particular body type.

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A diminutive figure is…very short or small.

If something is prized, it is considered valuable and important.

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In sports where large size is prized, the large athletes have gotten larger. Conversely, in sports where diminutive stature is an advantage, the small athletes got smaller.

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In swimming, the ideal body type is a long torso and short legs.

The introduction of low-fiction swimwear has enabled swimmers to swim faster.

Technological advancements have helped swimmers achieve faster times.

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Had Leonardo wanted to draw the Vitruvian NBA Player, he would have needed a rectangle and an ellipse, not a circle and a square.