10 March, 2018

Vazel is back

Those who follow my blog have certainly encountered references to the blog of J.P. Vazel, a french athletics expert. His writings have been on more than one occasion a source of inspiration for myself. But in 2016 something happened. Just after the Rio Olympics Vazel stopped blogging. It was a great loss and after some time I lost hope and stopped visiting the blog's site. Then one day, while cleaning some bookmarks on my work's computer I pressed by chance the button to "Plus vite, plus haut, plus fort" and lo and behold there was a new post


It is not really new, since it dates back to the beginning of the year but as I explained I have only yesterday stumbled upon it. I am not even sure whether this is a one-off or whether J.P. Vazel really intends to come back to blogging. Be that as it may, the fact that he published something after the long hiatus is quite encouraging.

If you can read french I encourage you to visit his blog. His most recent article, linked to above, deals with an old theme. Spurred by the fact that in 2017 no new men's world record was registered, for the first time since the creation of the IAAF in 1912, people started thinking whether this signals the end of progress in athletics. Without taking an authoritative position J.P. Vazel points out that this is not the first time people are speaking about the end of records: it is a recurring theme and, in fact, something that goes back all the way to antiquity.

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