Roberto Quintana has a Ph.D. in exercise physiology and is the director of the Human Performance Lab at California State University, Sacramento. He spends much of his day studying athletes, so he's not easy to impress.
We asked him to reflect on the Beijing Olympics and the achievements of swimmer Michael Phelps (eight gold medals, seven world records) and sprinter Usain Bolt (gold medals and world records in the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes.)
Michael Phelps has amazed sports fans. Did he impress you as a sports scientist?
For him to go through that many events and win eight gold medals, it's just mind-boggling. For what he's accomplished, it requires a lot of mental focus.
What happens to the body after a hard effort like the 200-meter butterfly?
He has to make sure he's rested. He has to replace the glycogen he used. The glycogen allows his muscles to perform at a very high level. We know from research that if your glycogen stores are compro- mised even a little bit, it alters the amount of force you're able to generate by the muscle.
How about the records?
I'm not so impressed with the world records. A lot of that was with the swimsuit.
Then there's Usain Bolt. Might he be a sprinter for the ages?
What he has done is mind-boggling because the technology in running really hasn't changed. We don't have a suit that cheats the wind.
Phelps and Bolt are both great athletes, but they're a little bit different. Considering that most of the 100- and 200-meter (track) races are won by hundredths of a second, he beat everyone by 0.6 seconds in the 200. That's the equivalent of Michael Phelps winning by a whole lap. We probably won't see anything like that again for 20 or 30 years.
When you first saw Bolt as a sports fan and as a scientist, what did you think?
I was in awe. Usually larger individuals like that (Bolt is 6-foot-5) take a while to accelerate. The crazy thing about him is he can accelerate very quickly like the smaller runners. But he's like Carl Lewis in that he can hit a very high speed. Lewis was limited because he needed about 70 or 80 meters to hit top speed and separate himself from the field. Usain Bolt is hitting his peak speed at around 50 meters.
He seems to have come out of nowhere.
This year, something must have happened in his training to elevate his game in this way.
Are you suspicious at all?
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