History of Sport Science in the Olympics

In a world of conflict over our differing values and beliefs, sport has been one of the strongest unifying factors since the first Olympics. Although the date of the first Olympic games is shrouded in myth, it is said that the first Olympic games occurred in 776 BC. In Olympia, Greece. Citizens would gather to watch a series of athletic competitions every four years. Ever since the very first occurrence of sport, humans have been trying to gain an edge on the competition and thus, sport science was born. This desire to enhance athletic performance sparked a revolution in how athletes would prepare for competition.

Progressive Training, The Early Years

In the 2nd century, ancient Greek physician and philosopher Galen compiled essays about proper nutrition, aerobic fitness, and strengthening muscles. Galen is also credited with describing various strength exercises through the usage of halteres, which were an ancient form of the modern-day dumbbell. According to ancient Greek legend, in the 6^th century, famed wrestler Milos of Croton created the very first progressive resistance training program. Milos trained by carrying a newborn calf on his back every day until it was fully grown. Although primitive, it was this simple program of weighted carries that laid the foundation for centuries of research on improving health and fitness. However, it wasn’t until the 20^th century where the development of sport science truly accelerated.

The Games of the XI Olympiad

Sport science began its accelerated development leading up to the Games of the XI Olympiad. The 1936 Summer Olympics were to be held in Berlin, Germany. The leader of the German people at the time, Adolf Hitler had something to prove to the world. The Nazi governing party of Germany wanted to demonstrate to the world through sport, the power of the German people. Hitler sought out to prove the strength of his German people, German athletes trained harder and smarter than the rest of the world. When the Munich Summer Games concluded Germany had amassed 89 total medals, beating the United States by 33 medals. The 1936 Olympic games will go down in history as one of the most infamous sporting events ever hosted. But what these games didn’t fail to accomplish was that they attached sporting performance with strong feelings of nationalism and pride.

 

The Cold War

Perhaps the most dramatic sporting rivalry ever developed was between the Soviet Union and the United States of America. From the Helsinki games of 1952 to the Seoul games of 1988 the USA and USSR battled for sports supremacy. As the world braced itself for another world war, these two countries strived to show their dominance over the other in anyway possible. When the Soviets launched “Sputnik” the United States had to land on the moon, when the USSR won a gold medal in the Olympic games, the US had to win two. It was this fierce and competitive battle in the sporting arena that led to some of the most important developments in sport science. American and Soviet sport scientists created many of the concepts that we now accept as important fundamentals into any fitness regimen today.

The Big Red Machine

During the 46 year Cold War, the Soviet Union was the most successful nation in Olympic team competitions. Although the success of the “Big Red Machine” known as the USSR can be attributed to multiple factors, it was the devotion of financial assets toward sport development that made the biggest impact. At a time where other nations were merely in the infant stages of sport science, the Soviets were busy running a wide variety of studies on various training methodologies. As a result of the extensive studies that were performed, Soviet sport scientists developed:

• Periodization
• Plyometrics
• Various methodologies for strength and power development
• Optimal work to rest ratios
• Regeneration and recovery strategies
• Optimal training stimulus to facilitate specific adaptations
• Contributions of different energy systems to sport performance
• Optimal nutrition practices
• Ergogenic aids and performance enhancement strategies
• Interval Training

While the Soviet Union was continuing to accumulate Olympic medals, the United States was undergoing its own sport science revolution in an attempt to keep up.

The Aerobic Revolution

In 1968, Dr. Kenneth Cooper released a book titled “aerobics”. Cooper was befuddled by the poor performances of strong athletic males in endurance activity scenarios. To solve this issue, Cooper coined the term aerobics and developed his own training methodology.  The “aerobics” training methodology pushed the concept of steady state cardiovascular exercise. Cooper’s aerobic training methodology gained immense popularity in the United States shortly after his book was released. Cooper is often credited with sparking the popularity behind physical fitness and starting the fitness revolution in the United States.

Eastern and Western Theories Converge

During the late 1970s soviet theory began to find its way to America. In the 1980s the American sport scientists began using the same training methodologies that the Soviet Union had been employing for years. As a result the United States began to catch up to the Soviet Union as evidenced by the chart below.

Competition	USSR Medal Count	USA Medal Count
1952   Helsinki Summer Olympics	71	76
1956   Melbourne Summer Olympics	98	74
1960   Rome Summer Olympics	103	71
1964   Tokyo Summer Olympics	96	90
1968   Mexico City Summer Olympics	91	107
1972   Munich Summer Olympics	99	94
1976   Montreal Summer Olympics	125	94
1980   Moscow Summer Olympics	195	126
1984   Los Angeles Summer Olympics	Boycott	174
1988   Seoul Summer Olympics	132	94
1992   Barcelona Summer Olympics	112	108
1996   Atlanta Summer Olympics	Disbanded	101

Ever since the USSR has disbanded, western countries have been trying to catch up to the systematic approach to training that the Soviets founded. The research that came from the USSR during the Cold War laid the foundation for every national athletic development program. Ideas such as periodization, plyometrics, and interval training are now fundamentals to almost any athletic training regimen.

As the games of 2012 approach, know that behind every world record performance that will be achieved over the next 17 days, is the result of a 2000-year evolution of sport science.

Written by Jason Tremblay, The Strength Guys 

References:

International Olympic Committee (2012) Ancient Olympic Games. Retrieved July 17, 2012 from: http://www.olympic.org/ancient-olympic-games

Yuri Brokhin, The Big Red Machine (New York: Random House, 1978).

V.I Filiminov, K.N. Koptsev, Z.M. Husyanov and S.S. Nazarov, “Means of increasing Strength of the Punch,” National Strength and Conditioning Association Journal 7(December/January 1986): 65- 66.

G.V. Kurguzov and J. Rusanov, “Interval Training for Increasing Specialized Work Capacity of Boxers,” Soviet Sports Review 23(March 1988): 13-14.

William Freeman. Peak When it Counts: Periodization for Ameri- can Truck and Field (Mountain View, California : TAF News Press, 1996).

Steven J. Fleck and William J. Kraemer, Designing Resistance Training Programs (Champaign, Illinois: Human Kinetics, 1997).