An evolutionary perspective on sport and performance enhancement

Abstract

Evolutionary pressures have shaped human biology and culture. These concepts can also be applied to the progression of elite sports performance, and the recognizable, constitutive characteristics of individual sports over the last ∼120 years. Athletic performance has improved as the population of participants has increased in both number and visibility. Technology and techniques have emerged and improved, and the science of performance and recovery has expanded to drive elite performance close to physiological limits. Detailed examination of decades of elite performance suggests that with athletic performance near the limits of human physiology, technological, biomedical, or rule changes will be necessary for continued world record progression in some sports. The idea that performance-enhancing substances have not had a substantial impact on the evolution of elite performance is introduced.