John Brenkus is the Executive Producer and Host for, "Sport Science", on ESPN. A show rapidly gaining popularity for putting the raw physical skills of today's most exciting athletes on display.
This article gets into great depth about a number of things. One being, is there such thing as the perfect athlete? Two being, is there a physical, human limitation? In other words, can today's athlete be pushed to limits some experts say are impossible? In other words, what is our species' "Perfection Point?"
John Brenkus and several sport's physiologists set out to find our species "Perfection Point". John published their results in his self written book "The Perfection Point"
After reading this article, I was intrigued by two things.
- The maximum time that a human could hold his breath while face-down in water is fourteen minutes, forty-seven seconds.
Sounds ridiculous right? Yea, probably because it is.
The average dolphin species can stay underwater for as long as eight to 10 minutes. Again, EIGHT to TEN minutes. For a human to stay under water for FIVE minutes longer than that of the dolphin's physical capability is mind-bending.
This means that the Human Being's lungs are more functional than those of the dolphin's, and their solely an aquatic species, human's being land dwellers.
This alone says something about the evolution of the human species, but that's for another blog.
- Balance everything out perfectly and it should be possible for a human being to cover the 100 meter dash distance in 8.99 seconds. But not 8.98. That's a flat-out impossibility.
The current world record for the 100 meter dash is 9.72 seconds, held by the freak of an athlete, Usain Bolt.
It doesn't take an astro-physicist to deceiver the difference in the two times (8.99 and 9.72), being .73, almost a full second.
With training methods getting better and weight lifting techniques getting more modernized. The future athlete is going to break and set records at a blistering pace. They're going to be faster, stronger, smarter, quicker, and more agile.
I expect this 100 meter dash record to be broken sometime in the next 10 years. And the "final" 8.99 reached at some point during the next 50-60 years
So, to answer my blog's title. Yes, it is possible for the Perfect athlete to exist. But in order for this to occur, the athlete must be bread. He must come out the womb with ankle weights strapped to his bitty legs. He must have the reflexes of a cat and the grace of a gazelle. He must eat, sleep, and completley devote his life to the record he wishes to set. The record of perfection.
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