is the title of an article linked on the home-page. To my mind, it's another case of someone looking at the obvious and still coming up with the wrong conclusion.
One of the things that hooked me on T&F in the late 60s and early 70s was the spate of WRs. They came with regularity, and then once the PEDs really got going in the mid-70s, it accelerated (pun!). It has slowed to a trickle this decade, especially in the field events, and yet this year had a healthy number, thanks, in part, to it being an Oly year. The year after the OG is always slow, but then the WCup year allows elites to forgo the full commitment to peaking, so they have more opportunities to go for a great mark, and then the year before the next OG is decent, because it is a WC year again, and the elites are looking to establish a high base.
I'd like to see the stats on how many WRs (only in OG events) there have been every year since, say, 1960, but I think we have flattened the curve at a viable number per year, so that there's still that excitement every year. The fully Professional Era has created a steady influx of talent, and I believe that we will soon eclipse the 'Heavy (Systemic) PED' era (not that there aren't still plenty of PED-users out there) and we can regain a slow, but steady climb again. New PEDs will ensure that the WRs are always out there, but if we can accept the fact that the two greatest athletes (BIG WR-setters - Phelps and Bolt) in the Games this year were clean, ANYTHING is possible.
That's my story and I'm sticking with it!
One of the things that hooked me on T&F in the late 60s and early 70s was the spate of WRs. They came with regularity, and then once the PEDs really got going in the mid-70s, it accelerated (pun!). It has slowed to a trickle this decade, especially in the field events, and yet this year had a healthy number, thanks, in part, to it being an Oly year. The year after the OG is always slow, but then the WCup year allows elites to forgo the full commitment to peaking, so they have more opportunities to go for a great mark, and then the year before the next OG is decent, because it is a WC year again, and the elites are looking to establish a high base.
I'd like to see the stats on how many WRs (only in OG events) there have been every year since, say, 1960, but I think we have flattened the curve at a viable number per year, so that there's still that excitement every year. The fully Professional Era has created a steady influx of talent, and I believe that we will soon eclipse the 'Heavy (Systemic) PED' era (not that there aren't still plenty of PED-users out there) and we can regain a slow, but steady climb again. New PEDs will ensure that the WRs are always out there, but if we can accept the fact that the two greatest athletes (BIG WR-setters - Phelps and Bolt) in the Games this year were clean, ANYTHING is possible.
That's my story and I'm sticking with it!
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