An interesting article by P.J. Vazel

The regular readers of this blog will have certainly noticed that the writings of P.J. Vazel are a source of inspiration for me. I was closely following his blog when it was still regularly updated. Unfortunately the blog is now essentially dead although all the articles published there are still available. (Well, not all. There is one noteworthy exception, but more on this later). While P.J. Vazel is not blogging anymore he is still quite active on twitter and from time to time I am visiting his page which is always interesting from a technical point of view. While I appreciate the writings of P.J. Vazel I was recently somewhat disappointed when I discovered that he is one of the champions of Semenya. According to him the testosterone-based DSD rules of the IAAF are sexist based not on science but on a misogynical approach.

I recently listened to an interview of P.J. Vazel at Radio Canada where he defended these positions. (If you understand french you can listen to this short interview entitled "Athlètes hyperandrogènes : un règlement sans fondement scientifique". And you can enjoy the scrumptious french-canadian accent of the interviewing journalist S. Bureau). I must admit that having discovered that pro-Semenya attitude of P.J. Vazel I have lost a part of my admiration for him.

Anyhow, the main topic in this post has nothing to do with hyper-androgenic women. (And in fact I hate going back to this subject repeatedly). Here I will deal with a study of P.J. Vazel on the evolution of the sprinting top speed based on measures spanning a century. 

The ancient runners are not bad but I prefer the ones of my blog's logo

Vazel did a great job of compilation and analysis and he explains in a very pedagogical way the flaws in every measurement. In the graphic below I summarise his findings plotting the evolution of the sprinting top speed over the years. I split on purpose the data into two groups. Those before 1970 are somehow less credible since they are not based on fully automatic measurements. It's only with the advent of high-speed cameras and precision electronic time-keeping that the measures of top speed can be seriously taken. (I have thus decided to discard the more than dubious 11.66 m/s on R. Metcalfe in 1932 and replace it by the more credible 10.97 m/s of E. Tolan).

Some points are remarkable in this graphic. The 1962 peak of 12.04 m/s is due to none other than the great Bob Hayes. Although the value seems almost too good to be true I do not put it beyond Hayes' exceptional talent. The speed surge around 2010 is, of course, due to the other great sprinter, U. Bolt. 

If you are interested in the subject I urge you to read the study of Vazel: it is clearly written and moreover it is in english (so, if you can read this post you can read Vazel's). There are some nice historical photos also, including this great photo of B. Hayes. 

Just have a look at the track: it looks like a sand-beach to me. Can you imagine the conditions under which Hayes was running the 100 m in 10 s flat?

An the beginning of this post I mentioned the one article that has disappeared from Vazel's blog. (Fortunately I had saved it in pdf form while it was available). It has to do, you guessed it, with hyper-androgenic women. It was a matter-of-fact, quite objective and very informative article. At the time I could not explain its disappearance. Now I do.