The Real Science of Sport Podcast

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In this show:

Switzerland's Audrey Werro delivered a stunning plot twist in the women's 800m, running the third fastest time in history (1:53.98) in Stockholm to beat a personal best from Keely Hodgkinson. Suddenly the world record conversation has two names in it. We discuss Werro's emergence and potential, the tactical error that may have cost Hodgkinson slightly, and what this means for the possibilities that the oldest world record in the sport falls this year
Where does Femke Bol fit into all this? The Dutch 400m hurdles star changed events in search of new challenges, but the event is evolving so fast that the challenge looks significantly greater and she's not even raced outdoors yet! We discuss whether her 400 meter speed is a genuine weapon or whether the 400-800 double is as rare as it is for good reason
Cooper Lutkenhaus is the most exciting teenager in track and field, already a world indoor champion, and now a Diamond League winner. We talk about his pedigree and potential, with Gareth nothing a multi-sport background that augurs well for his longevity. Challenges and 'road bumps' await, but he has a ceiling that may lie beyond the current world record
Kirsty Coventry said she doesn't believe in paying Olympic athletes, and it has not landed well. Global Athlete has responded with a proposal for interim payments and a breakdown of the IOC's finances that is staggering. The IOC is sitting on nearly five billion dollars in reserves, and Global Athlete are asking for eight percent of the Paris broadcasting revenue. We ponder why Coventry made that statement knowing it would invite significant blowback, and what it reveals about the pressure she is under from inside the IOC. We also speculate on whether there are any good reasons to avoid paying Olympic athletes
Anna van der Breggen lost the women's Giro on the final day from the pink jersey, her second Grand Tour lead lost this year. We explore why smaller team sizes in the women's peloton make tactical racing both more unpredictable and more compelling, and why the women's Tour de France is shaping up to be exceptional
The UCI's weekly rule update: no more front jersey pockets, bike computers limited in size, finishing straights must now be at least 200 meters, and an appeal against the Belgian court ruling on gear ratios. We work through each one, pick out the ones that make sense and the ones that really don't, and ask again why the SAFER data hasn't been made public to respond some of the criticisms the UCI are receiving
Christian Eriksen collapsed again during an international friendly, this time saved by his implantable cardioverter defibrillator. Ross explains what the device actually does, how often it fires appropriately versus inappropriately, and why Erikison's second event raises serious questions about whether continuing to play is tenable
And finally, a listener on Discourse solved the mystery of why Shohei Ohtani's baseball salary looked so low on the Forbes rich list. The answer involves 68 million dollars per year deferred over a decade, void years, ghost contracts, and some of the most creative accounting in professional sport
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This week's Spotlight opens in Paris, where Roland Garros has delivered one of the most chaotic and compelling Grand Slams in recent memory, and ends on a Las Vegas track with a promise of $10 million unlikely to be fulfilled. Along the way, we explore retirements and comebacks, bike weight scandals, regulatory issues and a surprising way to boost your red blood cells.

In today's Show:

For the first time in the Open era, not a single former Grand Slam champion reached the men's round of 16. Ross and Gareth try to make sense of a tournament turned on its head by epically long five-set matches, multiple two-set-up defeats, and the emergence of potential new stars to challenge the duopoly atop men's tennis
Sinner is gone, Djokovic is gone, and the heat played a starring role. We revisit our applied show on heat adaptation to explain exactly why Sinner's implosion was both predictable physiologically, but surprising in its speed and persistence
Serena Williams has accepted a wildcard to play doubles at Queen's at 44. We explore the motivations for her return, and discuss why elite athletes retire in the first place? A thread on Discourse sparked by James gets us exploring the psychology and physiology of retirement, and why the grind we don't see is often the cause
In cycling, Lorena Wiebes was disqualified from the women's Giro after her bike allegedly weighed in 20 grams under the UCI's 6.8kg minimum. Was the punishment proportionate? Is the UCI's measurement process up to the required standard? Are SD Worx guilty of playing it too close to the limit? We discuss.
A Belgian court has ruled against the UCI's attempt to impose gear ratio limits on the sport, finding the regulation neither necessary nor proportionate. We explore the implications well beyond cycling, and ponder how the UCI's failure to present a clear justification for the regulation was ultimately its undoing
Tilting your bed by six degrees could raise your EPO levels by 13% and increase hemoglobin mass by nearly 5%. Ross unpacks a genuinely fascinating new study, explaining why the mechanism is the same as altitude and heat training, whether the effect will be additive in athletes, and whether elite athletes are already quietly propping up their headboards
A carbohydrate question from supporter Tony ahead of his national canoe championships: does glycogen depletion in one muscle group affect availability elsewhere? Ross explains the elegant logic of local storage and use, the lactate shuttle, and why liver is the unsung hero of endurance fuelling
And Finally, the Enhanced Games have announced a $10 million bonus for anyone who breaks Usain Bolt's 100m world record at their 2027 event. We discuss whether that will be enough to entice the truly fast man to race, doped or clean, and what it might mean for athlete's participation in the Olympics following an Enhanced Games

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In our Spotlight this week:

The heat wave in Paris is making life very difficult at Roland Garros, with Casper Ruud describing himself as "walking around like a zombie" during his first round match. We explore the physiology of heat regulation in tennis, how safety policies are developed to protect players, explain why heat changes the tactical and technical nature of play, and what can be done to help players without handing out free passes to those less well prepared
Sean Ingle joined us recently to talk about the Enhanced Games. We share our thoughts as the dust settles, with more reflection on why the premise of trustworthiness was never really delivered, the money that is turning athlete's heads, and Gareth walks back a few things he said in the heat of the moment
We explain the deliberate logic behind World Athletics' new qualification standards, and what it means for athletes without a good agent or a seat at the Diamond League table
Rugby and concussion are in the Spotlight again with two research developments. First, a group of researchers is promising a new evidence-backed head impact assessment protocol for women's players. Ross doesn't know exactly what that means, and we discuss what is already known about women's susceptibility to concussion. Then, a new study out of Ireland provides the first published evidence that lowering the legal tackle height in rugby has reduced concussion and overall injury rates at community level. Ross, who has been directly involved in the process, explains what we now know, what still needs work, and why a 20% drop, scaled across tens of thousands of players, is a genuinely meaningful public health win
Can an athlete still compete professionally in multiple sports at the highest level? A great question from listener Robert to our Discourse community (another reason to join our supporters club for more!) sparks a wide-ranging conversation, from Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders to Rebecca Romero and Elise Perry — and why early specialisation has made the whole idea increasingly impossible
Forbes has released its top 10 highest-paid athletes of 2026. Ross and Gareth play a guessing game, reflect on what the list says about the business of sport, money and sex, and note that no woman made the top 50.
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Show notes

The Enhanced Games came and went in Las Vegas, amidst much hype, a host of personal bests but only a single world record. Was the event a success, and a taste of what is to come, or a spectacular flop? What do we make of allegedly clean athletes beating dopers, and dopers failing to challenge world records, often by large margins? As the sports world figures out what to make of it, Sean Ingle, chief sports reporter and columnist for The Guardian, joins us fresh from attending the event to share his experiences, thoughts and unfiltered verdicts.

Sean went in expecting grifters, but discovered something a little more complicated. He spoke to true believers of the "human enhancement" movement, billionaire backers, and athletes who made business decisions that may become increasingly difficult for other sports to ignore. Sean relates those conversations and his impressions of what they imply for the future of sport.

We ask the harder questions too. Will the Enhanced Games grow or stall? What are the risks if the business model that uses athletes to promote drugs for anti-aging purposes succeeds? And what lessons must traditional sport take from an event where athletes averaged $166,000 in a single night, and where the phone of at least one Olympic swim coach hasn't stopped ringing since?

Sean has placed his own sportsman's bet with one of the funders, Christian Angermeyer, that the Enhanced Games won't survive past 2031. He explains why he believes this, despite factors that suggest that "enhancement" is here to stay, and why he'd still rather be wrong than just ignore it.

Links

Some of Sean's articles on The Enhanced Games

Why he believes The Enhanced Games will fail by 2031
The questions Sean wrote will need answering prior to his visit to Vegas
Initial reactions from Vegas on the night of the Games
The Enhanced Games reject the timing controversy as "drivel"
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Show notes

On the decks today:

A new paper raises "substantial concerns" about the tool that is regularly used to diagnose a progressive neurodegenerative disease in contact sport athletes. We discuss the paper, and how the discourse around brain health of retired contact sport athletes has created anxiety and fear to the detriment of the athletes
The Women's Six Nations concluded, England winning it again with victory over France. We discuss the tournament, with Ross raising concerns about one-sided contests through, and the total stratification of teams, while Gareth is more optimistic about some statistical trends that suggest progress, at least on the part of some teams
On the subject of women's rugby, the trials for a smaller ball have received more criticism from international players. Ross explains how the process is run, why nobody is being ambushed, and how the smaller ball has been explored for six years and counting to get to this point
Janik Sinner won another Masters tournament last week, breaking the record for most wins (now at six tournaments, and 34 matches, with only three lost sets). Gareth wonders what can possibly deny the Italian a French Open and Wimbledon, now that Alcaraz is missing both those Slams? Ross reckons maybe muscle cramps can defeat him...
A listener, Andrew, asked an intriguing, and unanswerable question in our Supporter community - which sport would it be best to be elite at? And which is worst? We offer our thoughts and criteria for what qualifies the sport
And Finally, the Enhanced Games are on Sunday, and Sean Ingle is attending. We offer our thoughts on what we'd most like to see happen at the Vegas circus. One swimmer is taking some precautions in anticipation of the side-effects, and we promise to revisit the performances in next week's show
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