The Olympic Games go long way back, however, the modern Summer Olympics that are held every four years started in Athens in 1986. Ever since, hundreds of thousands of athletes, men and women of all race, have competed in this series of prestigious sporting events.
Since more athletes are competing in the Olympics, world records are getting harder to break. According to the extreme value statistics an extreme outlier, a person that stands out in his or hers athletic abilities, is probably present in the competing pool. This means, in the span of one hundred years we can expect some new world records to be set.
Some of these sports mavericks, so to speak, are blessed with good genes. Still a human body can take as much strain as it is able to. Of course, there are also other factors that help athletes to achieve their goals, such as training techniques, nutrition, equipment, etc. What about the help of science? For example, using CRISPR technology to genetically engineer top of the top competitors.
In our Splice Summer Edition, we are featuring the video “Will We Ever Stop Breaking World Records?” where Julian Huguet discusses about how breaking the world record is hard to achieve and how could we change that with the help of CRISPR technology. Enjoy!
Blazka Orel, MSc, BioSistemika LLC
