"When horse racing fans rhapsodize about Secretariat's enormous heart, they're not speaking metaphorically - a postmortem exam in 1989 found that it weighed between 21 and 22 pounds, two-and-a-half times more than the average thoroughbred's heart. The legendary horse also had a perfectly proportioned bone structure, flawless biomechanics, and a seemingly innate hunger for the finish line."
"Whether humans, too, have reached peak performance is a question that surfaces with every Olympic Games. Are any of this year's champions the human equivalent of Secretariat - the pinnacle of what's possible in their chosen discipline? Pundits have been forecasting the imminent end of biological progress more or less since we began keeping track of sporting records."
Secretariat combined extraordinary biology—a 21–22 pound heart, ideal bone structure, impeccable biomechanics—and fierce competitiveness to set enduring Triple Crown records in 1973. Human athletic progress differs from equine limits because humans compete not only against each other but against objective measures, historical benchmarks, and evolving technology. World records can reflect genuine biological improvement through superior training, nutrition, tactics, and psychology, or they can reflect technological advantages when equipment or gear makes tasks easier. The distinction between virtuous biological advancement and technology-enabled gains shapes debates about the legitimacy and meaning of new sporting records.
Read at Big Think
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