... ‘Men’s 100m can only have top time of 9.4’ PARIS, France
(AFP) — The motto of the Olympics — "Faster, Higher, Stronger" —
paints a picture of relentless athletic record-breaking. But
some scientists say sporting records are starting to flatline
and one day will become near impossible to beat without drugs,
gene splicing or futuristic technology. The Men's long-jump
world record was set in 1991, the Men's pole vault record
remains unbroken since 1994 and short-distance swimming's
achievements have actually reversed since the drag-reducing
bodysuit was banned in 2010. "In all sports, what you see is a
levelling off," says Steve Haake, director of Sheffield Hallam
University's Centre for Sports Engineering Research. Records
continue to be broken in many sports, but the margins are
getting smaller and smaller, Geoffroy Berthelot with the INSEP
sports institute in Paris looked at a history of Olympic records
since the modern Games began in 1896. He calculates that
athletes have reached 99 per cent of what is p