Elite Sport's Race to the Bottom, and Anti-Doping's Scramble for Higher Ground
A spotlight focused on Talent ID challenges in Youth Sport, and moves by Anti-Doping to stay ahead of the game
The Real Science of Sport Podcast · Mike Finch
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Show Notes
In this Spotlight edition, Gareth Davies and Ross Tucker dive ever deeper into the abyss of sport's Talent Identification and Development inefficiencies. With a nod to our most recent podcast on Gout Gout's meteoric rise and anticipated trajectory to sprint dominance, we discuss how elite sport 'farms' talent in a 'race to the bottom' that characterises the ruthless pursuit of champions. We discuss the costs this creates, both financial and human, using talent pathway practices in cycling, football, rugby and tennis to illustrate why lost young athletes and inefficiencies are features of the system, rather than 'bugs'. We also discuss the latest developments in the world of anti-doping, where WADA have announced changes to contamination cases and accidental doping, and where the UCI have moved to ban carbon monoxide use for performance enhancement, but not measurement.
SHOW NOTES:
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A research article exploring how U23 performances predict elite cycling performance, perhaps not surprisingly, as discussed in the show
My 2019 article on the curse of the precocious athlete
The Gout Gout podcast referenced in our Talent discussions
The very interesting Discourse topic in which Gareth and others talk about the changes in professional cycling (Discourse members only)
The UCI "bans" carbon monoxide use for performance enhancement, but not for measurement. Quite how is anyone's guess.
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