" Why do older sprinters reach the finish line later ? "

[Emile]

Hi
found an old dissertation to address this question (open access link below).
-Emile

https://jyx.jyu.fi/dspace/bitstream/handle/123456789/20350/9789513936136.pdf?sequence=4

[Atticus]

Thanks, I needed a good laugh.

[Emile]

Thanks, I needed a good laugh.

"There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating - people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing."

-Oscar Wilde

[Atticus]

You're gonna hafta trust me on this one, but as a 64-year-old who still hurdles/jumps/vaults, I KNOW why old people don't finish first.

[jc203]

I think I understand now.
Older people tend to have aged and they are not as young as younger people who have not aged...
Is that right?

[lonewolf]

This would seem to be the most ponderable of all questions; with the caveat that "older" is relevant to the ages of the contestants. An 18 year old will, in most instances, beat a 12 year old but it is obvious the reference is to those in their dotage.
I competed in track and field from age 10 until my titanium knee retired me at age 78 and it was all down hill from about age 30. I ran just as hard, the wind whistled past my years, I huffed and puffed and sweated and was exilerated afterward but the stop watch don't lie..the older I got, the longer it took to get from there to here.. yet I was still beating those older than I..and they were beating those older than them...do you see a pattern here??

[Atticus]

I ran just as hard, the wind whistled past my years, I huffed and puffed and sweated and was exilerated afterward but the stop watch don't lie

So true. When I hurdle with my athletes, it FEELS the same - I feel fast and technically sharp, but when they turn the iPad on me and I have to watch the video of me, all I see is a foolish old man still trying desperately to cling to long-vanished youth. . . . sigh

[no one]

Atticus - a feat in and of itself to hurdle @ age 64, much less jump, and perhaps exceeded by vaulting. A man among geezers!

[Atticus]

Atticus - a feat in and of itself to hurdle @ age 64, much less jump, and perhaps exceeded by vaulting. A man among geezers!

Is that like being the skinniest kid at Fat Camp?

[Tuariki]

"There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating - people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing."

-Oscar Wilde

I gave up reading his dissertation at page 30. I have come to the conclusion that Marko T. Korhonen, in terms of Oscar Wide, is two people rolled up into one as he clearly knows absolutely everything about something (just not sure what that something is), and I am guessing he knows absolutely nothing about anything else.

[Tuariki]

You're gonna hafta trust me on this one, but as a 64-year-old who still hurdles/jumps/vaults, I KNOW why old people don't finish first.

As someone who was also born in the same year of the rabbit as Atticus I would agree wholeheartedly with Atticus's. As I presume with Atticus I don't think I would need 215 pages written in a foreign language (well, at least hlf of the words used by Korhonen were pretty bloody foreign to me). I think a paragraph would do it.

In fact I experimented last month and tried my first LJ and HJ in over 30 years. I was dumb enough to accept a challenge from my 14 year old granddaughter. It hurt like hell, the knees didn't enjoy it at all. Nor did the hip joints. And I got my arse whipped as well.
Back to Masters shot, discus and hammer. May not be very good at the throws but at least it doesn't hurt like jumping.

[Tuariki]

I think I understand now.
Older people tend to have aged and they are not as young as younger people who have not aged...
Is that right?

Your observations while undoubtedly true are much too simplistic. I think Korhonen would have started off your observation along these lines:

"The glycinogenic inter molecular reactions within the variability and symmetry of relative agonist and antagonist electromyographic activity of bilateral isometric cellular structures of those persons that were conceived in the pre-discovery period of the DNA helix .........."

[Pego]

Your observations while undoubtedly true are much too simplistic. I think Korhonen would have started off your observation along these lines:

"The glycinogenic inter molecular reactions within the variability and symmetry of relative agonist and antagonist electromyographic activity of bilateral isometric cellular structures of those persons that were conceived in the pre-discovery period of the DNA helix .........."

You are good :-).

[Emile]

Your observations while undoubtedly true are much too simplistic. I think Korhonen would have started off your observation along these lines:

"The glycinogenic inter molecular reactions within the variability and symmetry of relative agonist and antagonist electromyographic activity of bilateral isometric cellular structures of those persons that were conceived in the pre-discovery period of the DNA helix .........."

You are funny :-D