How The Bodies Of Olympic Athletes Have Transformed Over A Century

How the bodies of Olympic athletes have transformed over a century: Competitors are taller, stronger and sometimes DOUBLE the weight of the first Olympians

• Athletes are about four inches taller than at the time of the 1896 Athens Olympics, research has found
• Tim Olds, professor of health sciences from Adelaide, says body changes haven't occurred in every sport
• Darwinian 'survival of the fittest' means the bodies of athletes are becoming more specialised, he says
• US shot-putter Robert Garrett, champion at the 1896 Games weighed 12st 10lb (81kg) and was 5'10" tall
• But the 2008 and 2012 champion, Poland's Tomasz Majewski, weighs 22st 5lb (142kg) and is 6'5"

We're getting taller, bigger and stronger than ever before - and Olympians are no exception.

Legendary sprinter Usain Bolt towers over rivals at 6'4", while Cuban heavyweight wrestler Mijain Lopez weighs a staggering 20st 6lb (130kg).

Athletes today are about four inches taller than they were at the time of the 1896 Athens Olympics, research has found.

But Tim Olds, a professor of health sciences at the University of South Australia, says body changes haven't occurred in every sport - with gymnasts actually becoming smaller.

Here, writing for The Conversation, he reveals how social, economic and technological factors can explain why bodies have changed.


US athlete Robert Garrett, who won the shot-put at the 1896 Olympics, weighed 12st 10lb (81kg) and was 5'10". But the 2008 and 2012 champion, Poland's Tomasz Majewski, weighs 22st 5lb (142kg) and is 6'5"



Charles Reidpath, the 400-metre champion at the 1912 Olympics from the US, weighed 12st 3lb (78kg) and was 5'8. But 100 years later, defending champion Kirani James, from Grenada, is five pounds heavier (80kg) and two inches taller



Henry Faust who was a basketballer for the Buffalo Germans in 1903 was 5'11" and weighed 11st 9lb (74kg). However, fast forward to 2016 and Kevin Durant, a member of the US Olympic team, weighs 16st 5lb (104kg) - nearly five stone heavier. He also is 6'9" tall - meaning he is almost a foot taller than his predecessor

Darwinian 'survival of the fittest' means the bodies of Olympic athletes are becoming more specialised, more differentiated – and much more extreme.

The gold medal shot-putter from the first ever Games in 1896, Robert Garrett from the US, weighed 12st 10lb (81kg) and was 5'10".

But the 2008 and 2012 champion, Poland's Tomasz Majewski, weighs 22st 5lb (142kg) and is 6'5".

Over a similar period, however, the weight of the 400m race champion barely changed.

In 1912, Charles Reidpath, from the US, weighed 12st 3lb (78kg) and was 5'8".

But 100 years later, Kirani James, from Grenada, is 5lb heavier (80kg) and two inches taller.



Legendary sprinter Usain Bolt, who towers over his rivals at 6’4”, ran 9.86sec to win gold and pick up his third successive 100m Olympic title

Like galaxies in our expanding universe, the body sizes and shapes of Olympians have been moving apart from each other at light-speed, and have become increasingly specialised and differentiated.

A hundred years ago, the same person could have won both the shot-put and the 400-metre dash. Today, that's unimaginable.

Excluding swimmers who have also played water polo, 39 athletes have won medals in more than one sport at the Summer Games.

Of these, 34 won their medals in the 60 years before 1956, leaving only five in the 60 years since.

In the early days of the Olympics, athletes won medals in exotic combinations of sports, such as athletics and tennis - Australian Teddy Flack in 1896 - or shooting and weightlifting - Viggo Jensen, Denmark, 1896.

These are akin to seeing Usain Bolt trying his hand at synchronised swimming, or Roger Federer on the Roman rings.

In some sports, athletes are just getting bigger and bigger.

Filippo Bottino won gold for Italy in the open weightlifting at Antwerp in 1920, weighing 15st 8lb (99kg). In 2012, Iranian Behdad Salimiweighed 29st 10lb (189kg).

In other sports, body size and shape have barely changed.

From 1896 to 2016, the average weight of elite marathoners has increased by just one kilogram – from 9st 6lb (60kg) to 9st 8lb (61kg); and their height by only two centimetres – from 5'6" to 5'7".

It seems there is an ideal weight and height for this kind of athlete.

Divers, too, have hardly changed. Gymnasts have actually become smaller.

THE SEARCH FOR SIZE



Gymnasts have actually become smaller over time, says Professor Olds. US gymnast Simone Biles, who stands at just 4’8”, won her fourth gold medal at the Rio 2016 Olympics in the floor exercise routine

Social, economic and technological factors are all driving this expanding universe of sporting bodies, this 'search for size'.

For one thing, there are just more people in the world, and therefore more extreme bodies.

In 1896, it's likely there would have been just one young man in Australia over two metres tall.

Today, there are probably more than 3,000.

People have got taller –we're about four inches taller than we were at the time of the 1896 Athens Olympics – and the population has increased sevenfold.

The pool of potential sports people has been expanding even faster as sport has become globalised.

The 7'6" basketballer Manute Bol was an illiterate Sudanese herdsman who had once killed a lion with his spear.

Better transport and telecommunications, more aggressive recruitment policies and higher wages also help.

Between 1945 and 1980, elite American footballers earned between five and ten times the median male wage — nice work if you could get it.

By 2000, they were earning 30 times the median wage.

If you're 7'6" tall, you won't be wasting your time studying accountancy. Or killing lions, for that matter.

But even the lure of huge amounts of money - last year the number one rookie pick in the NBA had a starting salary of $US4.9 million - has its limits.

The percentage of NBA players more than seven feet tall had increased from about one per cent in the 1940s and 1950s to about 10 per cent in the 1990s.



Heavyweight Cuban wrestler Mijain Lopez, who weighs a staggering 20st 6lb (130kg), picked up his third gold medal in the 130kg Greco-Roman wrestling competition

In 2002, 11 per cent of all players were more than seven feet tall. But that percentage hasn't increased for 20 years.

The NBA has now recruited all the players in the world with exceptional height and at least some shred of basketball talent.

ARTIFICIAL GROWTH

At the same time, training and supplementation – nutritional and otherwise – has also changed Olympic bodies.

In any suburban gym today, you'll see bodies as muscular as the sprinters from the 1960 Rome Olympics shown in J.M. Tanner's 1964 book, Physique of the Olympic Athlete.

Weight training, steroids and human growth hormone have clearly played a role.

Between 1920 and 1979, the body mass index of American footballers increased at the rate of 0.3 units per decade.

In the years since, it has increased at more than five times that rate — 1.6 units per decade. It's inconceivable for these increases to have been achieved without steroids.

Where, then, will it all end? Extraordinary bodies are highly saleable commodities, and we're unlikely to see the rapid demise of growth-modifying drugs or extreme training methods.

But the new frontiers of size may be genetic: there are already athlete sperm and egg banks, plans to use gene therapy to block the muscle growth inhibitor myostatin, and talk of cloning athletes.

If that happens, the boundaries of the expanding universe of Olympic bodies will recede even further.

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