FUTURE HUMAN

We Will Not Get Bigger, We Will Not Get Faster

Or will we? A dispatch from the outer limits of human athletic performance

Wayde van Niekerk. Photo: Andy Lyons/Getty

Two years ago, at the Summer Olympics in Rio, Wayde van Niekerk ran the 400 meters in 43.03 seconds. Before the South African sprinter could catch his breath, the announcers had already cast his record-setting run as an unbelievable feat of human performance. “I can’t believe it!” howled one. “He has obliterated Michael Johnson’s world record!” Over at NBC, a second announcer goaded, “Guess what, Michael Johnson? The world record has been destroyed!” Later that day, an equally enthusiastic release from the Olympic committee reupped the flowery verbiage with the headline, “Van Nierkerk Smashes World Record.”

But here’s the thing: Van Niekerk’s time was just 0.15 seconds quicker than Michael Johnson’s. That’s a literal blink of an eye. (Actually, it’s probably less: A single blink ranges from .1 to .4 seconds.) So, even though van Niekerk’s margin of victory was too short for most people to even lubricate their corneas, it was sufficiently impressive to “obliterate,” “destroy,” and “smash” the 17-year-old record that came before it.

This is where athletic performance stands today: Each new achievement is shockingly impressive because it’s become so…