Why were women faster and stronger 35 years ago?

A mathematical study, which scores the tests based on the decathlon and heptalon formulas, determines that the best World Cup was Rome 1987, in the doping era. For men it was Doha 2019

The eighteenth World Championships in Athletics begins on Friday in a magical place for this sport, Eugene, where so many times the outbursts of the American ‘trials’ heralded the best in the great championships. It’s been four decades now, exactly 39 years, since the first edition, Helsinki’83. Forty years of progress in sport, technical advances, professionalization, the arrival of mass sponsors, the incorporation of new countries and changes in the world that also reconfigured sports powers, as well as a greater incorporation of women. In that transit, however, something does not fit. Although the best World Cup in the men’s category for the value of the brands was the last one, Doha 2019, in women the best harvest was collected 35 years ago. Afterwards, they have never been faster, stronger or jumped higher. Is it a throwback? The answer may lie in doping.

This is demonstrated by a mathematical study carried out by Juan Diego Lozano, actuary and statistician, as well as a deep connoisseur of the history of athletics, by applying the scoring formulas for the decathlon (10 men’s events) and the heptalon (seven women’s) to the same individual events in all the World Championships. To do this, not only the winners or medalists have been scored, but also the eight finalists. There is, therefore, unvalued evidence, especially in the background, but the sample, due to the prominence of its specialties, offers relevant conclusions.

KOSTADINOVA AND THE 80’S RECORDS

The World Cup played at the Foro Italico, in 1987, obtained the highest overall score (66,712 points) in the female category. It is the sum of all the scores of your finalists. For tests, it is the first World Championship in javelin, length and weight, the second in 200 and 800, and the third in height. Instead, it is in this last test where his winner, Stefka Kostadinova, achieved the world record still in force (2.09). Thanks to this mark, the Bulgarian jumper obtained the second best individual score of all the World Championships (1,359 points). The first (1,381) was also achieved in Rome, thanks to the 76.64 of Fatima Whitbread in javelin.

Rome was not an isolated event, but the sign of an era. The second Women’s World Cup in points was the first (Helsinki’83) and the fourth, Tokyo’91. The third is already a contemporary one (Beijing 2015). Three of the four best belong to the last century and, specifically, to the 80s and early 90s, when the state sport of the communist bloc was still standing. Tokyo ’91 was the last World Cup in which the USSR competed, the same August that ‘Perestroika’ abruptly ended. It was also the golden age of doping. In Rome she won the 100 Ben Johnsonpositive and dispossessed of his medals and marks a year later, at the Seoul Games, paralleling the otherworldly records left by Florence Griffith at 100 (10.49) and 200 (21.34).

Kostadoniva’s record survives alongside those of Griffith (1988) and Jarmila Katrochvilova (1.53.28 and 800 and 1983), Marita Koch (47.60 and 400 in 1985), Natalia Lisovskaya (22.63 in weight in 1987), Galina Chistiakova (7.52 in length in 1988), Gabrielle Reinsch (76.80 discus in 1988), the USSR relay in 4×100 (3:57.17 in 1988) and Jackie Joyner-Kersee (7,291 points in heptalon in 1988). Except for the latter and Griffith, all belong to athletes from the East. A heavy heritage for women on the track.

THE WORST FOR MEN

The contrast comes from verifying that Rome’87, the best World Cup for women, has been the worst for men (86,949), almost 4,000 points less than Doha, although some of its tests, such as the 1,500 in which the Spanish Jose Luis Gonzalez It was silver, I was among the best, fifth. The reality is that no mark from the 1980s survives in the table of men’s records. Doha 2019 adds 9,853 points, followed by the two immediately preceding it, London 2017 and Beijing 2015. In Doha, according to the study, the best 1,500 was run and the best weight was disputed.

On an individual level, the best male mark is 8.95 Mike Powell in Tokio’91 (1,312 points), current world record. In that contest, Carl Lewis jumped 8.91, scored with 1,301. In his best 100 in a World Championship, also in that championship, he ran in 9.86, a mark for which he adds 169 points less than for his performance in length.

“The study is effective for comparing the tests with respect to themselves, but the score of one with respect to another can lead to erroneous conclusions, because the formulas used by the regulations prioritize some tests over others,” says Lozano, who adds: “Lewis’s score in length would take him to run the 100 in 9.20 or 9.21, something, today, impossible.” The 1,202 points it adds prove it Usain Bolt for his 9.58 in Berlin 2009, for now the best ever seen in a World Cup.