Olympics: the ultimate limits of human performance + lessons from 1920 Antwerp games

Are there limits to how much faster, higher or stronger humans can get? We talk to researchers in biomechanics, sports technology and psychology, to find out.

Featuring Nicole Forrester, a former Canadian Olympic high jumper and now assistant professor in the school of media at Ryerson University in Toronto, Anthony Blazevich, professor of biomechanics at Edith Cowan University in Perth, Australia, and Jonathan Taylor, lecturer in sport and exercise at Teesside University in the UK.

In our second story, we hear the story of the troubled 1920 Antwerp Olympics, held in the wake of the first world war and the Spanish flu pandemic from Keith Rathbone, senior lecturer in modern European history and sports history at Macquarie University in Sydney.

And Thabo Leshilo, politics editor at The Conversation in Johannesburg, recommends some analysis on the recent unrest in South Africa following the imprisonment of former president, Jacob Zuma.

The Conversation Weekly is produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. You can sign up to The Conversation’s free daily email here. Full credits for this episode available here.

Further Reading

• Super shoes: Explaining athletics’ new technological arms race, by Jonathan Taylor, Teesside University
• How the COVID-19 delay of the Tokyo Olympics helped some athletes break records, by Jane Thornton, Western University
• The secret formula for becoming an elite athlete, by Nicole W. Forrester, Ryerson University
• Sardines for breakfast, hypothermia rescues: the story of the cash-strapped, post-pandemic 1920 Olympics, by Keith Rathbone, Macquarie University
• Unrest is being used to subvert South Africa’s democracy: giving in is not an option, by Mcebisi Ndletyana, University of Johannesburg
• Why have South Africans been on a looting rampage? Research offers insights, by Guy Lamb, Stellenbosch University