I was not planning to write an article following the superb performances of Allman and Denny and the new world record of Alekna in Ramona. But then I stumbled upon an article in Insidethegames where they were reporting the comments of swedish journalists and coaches. Commentator Mats Wennerholm had apparently stated "Weather doping should be added to the banned list". I was infuriated by this statement. This is not journalism; it's pure clickbait. Somebody should point out to Mr. Wennerholm that there is a capital difference between doping and weather. Doping is something that you do to give you an unfair advantage over the other competitors. Weather is the same for all the athletes participating in the same competition. (Pilpul-oriented readers will point out that the wind intensity may vary throughout an horizontal jump competition, but they should agree that my distinction between doping and weather is valid).
It is not by happenstance that the negative comments came from Sweden, the country of World and Olympic champion D. Stahl. At least Stahl's coach was less insulting in his comment: "it's a different sport". But I am convinced that, had Stahl participated in the Oklahoma Throws Series, he would have been happy with a 70+ m throw.
So, what is my point of view concerning the effect of wind, in particular in discus throw. I will state it clearly: forget about wind-speed limits. Already the wind-speed limits of sprints and horizontal jumps are iffy, but introduce one for the discus would be downright preposterous. Not everybody agrees with me. Just before writing this article I was enjoying a coffee with my Décapassion friends Frédéric and Pierre Gousset in a parisian café, and they are of the opinion that there should be limitations to the wind speed allowed in discus throw competitions. Although I agree with them that a strong head-wind does offer an advantage, I maintain that there is no simple way to quantify it.
But let us start at the beginning. More than 10 years ago I wrote an article entitled "Wind effects". It's one of the most popular posts of my blog with close to 3 k visits since its publication. I introduced the article with a quote from a 1980 post of Track & Field editor Bert Nelson: "The philosophy behind the official approval of sprint records is absurdly primitive. Permitting a record with a tailwind of 2 m/s was an arbitrary decision". (And he went on to suggest that the registered sprint times should be adjusted so as to take into account the assistance of the wind, a suggestion I am 100 % in favour of). But where does this "magic" number of 2 m/s come from? Like many things in Athletics it is a heritage from the olden days, based on (borderline-pseudo)scientific studies, just like the 100 milliseconds limit for the false starts. In the 1930's a supposedly scientific study showed that the tail-wind velocity should be below 1 m/s so as not to offer a performance gain greater than 0.1 second. That was the era when the times were homologated with 0.1 second precision, and so the 1 m/s speed limit did make sense. And the IAAF seeking, as always, not to rock many boats, opted for a compromise of 2 m/s. There you have it: the putatively scientific foundation of the wind-speed limit is a pure compromise. Five years ago I wrote a series of articles under the general heading "Imperative changes". One article of the series was devoted to wind measurements where, among others, I present the results of a study of P.N. Linthorne on the accuracy of wind measurements. (I suggest that you go read that article if you are really interested in the effects of wind in Athletics).
But let us go back to the discus throw. Does a strong head-wind present an advantage? Undoubtedly! (I remember an article of P.J. Vazel on ex-world recordman Y. Dumchev, a 70+ m thrower, who confided to Vazel that once in training under strongly windy conditions he threw close to 80 m). The recent competition in Ramona was a perfect proof of the head-wind advantage. V. Allman and L. Tausaga threw personal bests at 73.52 m and 70.72 m respectively. Y. Perez, could not get a good throw and finished fourth (behind V. Fraley, 68.72 m), with 66.96 m. But last year, in Ramona, she had thrown a huge 73.09 m. The men's results were even more impressive. M. Alekna and M. Denny threw beyond the existing world record with 75.56 and 74.78 m respectively. Three more athletes were beyond 70 m: S. Mattis, 71.27 m, C. Prufer 71.01 m and L. Okoye 70.76 m. (and we should not forget M. Sosna who threw 70.75 m the previous day of the Continental Tour competition, to say nothing of A. Rose who threw 70.42 m in 2023). Among the 2500 men's best performances (including ancillary marks) 75(!) were obtained in Ramona. (Also 26 among women's 4000 best performances, but one should keep in mind that for a long time the event was eastern-Europe dominated. In fact Neubrandenburg has 85 entries in the women's all-time bests list).
Are we able to quantify the effect of wind on discus throw? Are there serious aerodynamic studies that would offer a clear answer on what is the advantage offered by a head-wind as a function of velocity and direction with respect to the throw? Unfortunately, no. And even if such studies were available, how do we get to measure the wind in the case of a discus trajectory? In a 70 m throw a discus can reach a height of more than 10 m. Measuring the wind-speed at ground level is clearly useless. But then, which height do we choose for the measurement? And at which point of the trajectory? And how do we account for varying wind direction? All these questions can be answered, in principle. But I don't think a practical implementation is feasible. So, instead of some absurd and arbitrary decision, it is best to promote the Oklahoma Throws Continental Tour event and make sure that the best world throwers go there to profit from the favourable windy conditions.
Two funny remarks are in order before concluding. The article of Insidethegames comments that Ramona has earned the nickname "Throw Town" and adds "the local weather provides wind conditions favourable to big throws and unlike track events, there is no limit on maximum permissible tail-winds in the field". Reading these lines I am afraid that the journalist who wrote this does not understand that discus, just like airplanes, fare better in strong head-winds. And in some other article I ran across the term "gale-force" wind. It was definitely used to cause a sensation, but I decided to check. Force 7 in the Beaufort scale is a "near gale" and you need force 8 in order to have real gale, with wind speeds of around 20 m/s. During the competition in Ramona the wind speed was reported as 5 m/s, and according to the Beaufort scale it is just a force 3 gentle breeze.
So, please, stop using the words "Wind or Weather Doping". It's a disgusting yellow journalism practice and, if nothing else, insulting for the athletes.
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