We would all like to mix work with pleasure. After all, we are scientists. That is precisely what astronomer and sports physicist Joe Patterson discussed at tonight’s session of Café Science. This monthly event sponsored by Columbia University’s alumni association (but open to anyone with $10) is a great way to sit back, have a glass of wine (included in the cover charge), and listen to Columbia professors speak about their research. This month, Dr. Patterson discussed a lighter side of his research (actually, more of a hobby), which examined trends in Olympic performance over the past century.

Patterson tracked gold medal Olympic records from 1900-2008. He focused on individual events in which the outcome could be quantified with one number, such as time for the hundred meter dash or distance in shotput. He then plotted performance versus year for these events. Rather than see an asymptotic trend, in which performance would plateau over time, Patterson found that the trend in performance was linear. In fact, when plotting performance for both men and women in any respective event, the graph actually depicted two parallel lines.

So what did he find? Well, mainly what you would expect. Men’s records in speed events tended to be anywhere from 10%-12% better than women’s. So when it comes to running events, he calculated that women’s records are about 50-85 years behind men’s records. However, in swimming and strength events, the gap between men and women is much smaller. As for the overall trends in performance, running times improved by around 1%-3% (men and women trends were similar), swimming times improved around 3%-5% (only men’s data available), and strength performance improved around 4%-7% (only men’s data available). One surprising finding was that, because the trend was linear, this suggested that performance was nowhere near its ultimate limit.

This naturally brought up the question as to why athletic performance has improved so drastically over the past century. The explanation is a combination of technical and socio-biological factors. On the technical side, nutrition is better, training is more rigorous, and athletic clothing is more aerodynamic (especially swimsuits). One the socio-biological side, as more and more countries join the Olympic Games, the talent and number of athletes diversifies and inevitably improves.

There are many more possibilities to explore when assessing athletic performance over time. Just like athletic potential, the influencing factors may be limitless. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.