Review: The Science of the Summer Games

This is a review of the book:

The Science of the Summer Games

by Vincent Mallette

     Well if you have an interest in sports and you happen to have a both an interest and a profession related to Physics then this is the book for you!  I suppose that is why a friend gave this book to me!

     This is the quickest reading 300 page book you will ever do if you are interested in Olympic sports and science.  Full of tidbits and interesting information.  In fact it has information I am likely to repeat and describe for years to come. If you are looking for a rigorous mathematical treatment of the summer games then don't get this text.  If you want a resource to look up and read just prior to watching a favorite event then this is the text for you!

     This text discusses and describes 24 team and individual categories of events. These events include baseball, basketball, boxing, cycling, canoeing, cycling, discus throw, diving, fencing, equestrian events, hammer throw, sprints, long runs, pentathlon, tennis, water polo, gymnastics, javelin throw, jumps, pole vault, soccer, swimming and wrestling.  Emphasis is on historical data and with a general knowledge of the science involved in that event (that can have an impact on performance).  This is a lay reader oriented text!

     Tidbits of interest to some one like me:

   "Paradoxically if you throw a discuss into the wind it goes further! (pg 58)

   There is an integral formula described on pg 74 representing the "forward somersault with a right handed twist" (pg 74)

   There is a great table on pg 133 that details the acceleration of gravity relative to New York City (which in the United States is like the center of the universe!)

   "The human being is the only animal that can swim a mile, run five miles, and climb a tree." (pg 159)

   Finally a metric mistake that is not catastrophic!  This one got the athlete a Gold Medal!  "U.S. vaulter Bon Seagren almost missed out on the gold medal in 1968 becasue he thought 5.25 meters was lower than 17 feet 6.5 inches, and passed on the jump he should have taken." (pg 171)

   "The run is a controlled fall.  Your center of gravity is often well forward of your feet. If you don't believe it, "freeze" during a run.  You'll fall lat on your face." (pg 195)

   "In 1974 a sprinter named Ivory Crocket finally rant the 100 yard dash in 9 seconds but he was 68 years too late!  In 1906 Richard Perry Williams ran an accurately measured 100 yards in 9.0 seconds, time by 5 stop watches!" (pg 200)

   "A unique thing about the Olympics is that they embrace both the most efficent and least efficient forms of locomotion - bicycling and swimming respectively." (pg 203)
   for swimming: "shaving body hair does in fact give the swimmer and advantage.....to put a number on it, about a second per 100 meters" (pg 209-10)

   The author clearly points out that steroids and enhancement drugs do, in fact, have a huge impact on performance in every Olympic event.  The long term impact is catastrophic.  It was noted that Doctors in East Germany  "saw the liver damage the steroid cocktail had done to a sprinter Kertein Behrendt (but kept administering it).  Researchers in the west documented heart disease and sexual dysfunction as steroid side effects....the psychiatric effects may be more serious." (pg 237)
    So the final quote exactly captured my experience with regard to using performance enhancing drugs: "you may have a brilliant career, but is a wrecked life worth it? Better to pass up steroids and live to a ripe old age, with nothing worse form your athletic years than a bum knee!" (pg 137)  I can definitely identify with that last statement!