The Science of Sport passes the 1,000,000 mark!

Applying science one reader at a time

August is now coming to a close, and it has been a bumper month here on the site. With the IAAF World Champs and Bolt likely to break records, we were anticipating the usual buzz that follows him and his performances, but we never could have foreseen the public interest in the sad story of Caster Semenya. Our pages on that story have been viewed more than any other pages here in our 2.5 year history. So it was that sometime on Wednesday night, The Science of Sport had its 1,000,000th visitor. It would have happened eventually, but the interest in Semenya's story made it happen a lot quicker. The hype has died down a bit for now, but we fully expect it to rise to fever pitch once again when the IAAF releases its final verdict on whether or not she is eligible to compete against women.

Looking back - who knew?

When we started this site in April 2007, neither of us knew exactly where it was going to go. All we knew was that we had a passion for bringing the science out of the lab and applying it to the sports we all love and watch---hence our vision and mission. Since its inception we have grown to what you see here today, and now is a great time to thank all of our devoted and new readers who keep us going with amazing comment and great insight.

On the application of science, I was at the inaugural International Sports Science + Sports Medicine Conference two weeks ago in Newcastle, UK. It was a small but great meeting of both sports scientists and sports physicians, and there was much discussion and debate about how the scientists actually get the hard data from the lab out into the field so that athletes and coaches alike can access and use this information. Thanks to decisions made by the organizers, there was ample time for Q&A and panel discussions, which went over very well amongst the delegates. The conference is meant to be hosted in Newcastle again next year, so start planning your trips now!

Trickle down science

In so many sports the coaches are the link between the lab and the athlete, and so as sports scientists we have a role to play in getting the correct and usable information to the coaches (and athletes by extension). However it is always a struggle between the two, because the scientists in white lab coats look at the coaches and think, "What do you know, I have a PhD. . .," while the coaches look at the scientists and reply, "What do you know? We are the ones working with the athletes." So somehow we have to get it right and get the hard evidence and science from the lab into the coaches' hands so they can apply it. Sadly, though, no one seems to be doing an entirely adequate job of this.

Often times the findings from a study are interpreted to the extreme by the public, and a great example of this is new evidence on training with low muscle glycogen concentrations. This is John Hawley's work that has shown that when cyclists complete some training sessions with a low muscle glycogen concentration (which is induced by a prior training session), the signal to make adaptations might be enhanced. However, as is the case with most good studies, it was performed in very controlled and "sterile" conditions. This is good science, and is imperative if one wants to be able to interpret the data and actually see what happened in the experiment.

But you can imagine the high interest among coaches and athletes that training with a low muscle glycogen content might enhance the training adaptations. Immediately coaches were prescribing low carbohydrate diets to produce the low muscle glycogen levels, and immediately the application of this concept was lost, as athletes were getting low quality workouts because they felt so terrible from their low carbohydrate diets! There is a step missing here in which the real findings from studies like these must be interpreted outside of the lab setting, and the data must be translated to something the coaches and athletes can use in a meaningful way to improve their own training and performance.

Dietetics + Physiology = Bad advice

To all the dieticians amongst our readers, I promise I am not singling out your profession, but often you are asked by coaches and magazines to produce material on fluid replacement, and the result is never pretty. At least in my department at UIC (Kinesiology and Nutrition), our nutrition students are not given any applied (exercise) physiology, and instead are taught about fluid balance only from a clinical perspective. It should be noted that this is entirely appropriate since most of these students will work in the clinical setting, and only a small minority will go on to work with athletes, and even then they will probably further their training with courses or degrees in which they learn about exercise science. But when the clinical info is applied to sport, the result is this, from a dietician writing for a multi-sport coaching newsletter. In its entirety it makes us cringe, but in many ways she is just repeating what she was taught, instead of understanding the physiology of it, much like another section in the same newsletter written by a triathlon coach.

Neither seems to understand the concepts at play, and perhaps to practice their chosen professions they do not need to---which leaves the ball in the court of the the scientists to communicate accurately the evidence to the field. But it is easier said than done, and for a number of different reasons such as time, motivation, and even responsibility. When the chancellor of the university signs your paycheck and your job security depends on your publication record (and not the number of blog posts you do!), it is a compelling argument why one should do more than that.

The nature of physiological regulation

Almost two years ago, perhaps before many of our current readers came on board, we did a series on dehydration after the Chicago Marathon experienced an unseasonably warm race. There were several parts to the series, and so please refer back to it for the full details and very detailed posts, but at the heart of understanding fluid balance is the basic physiological concept of how the body regulates and "defends" different variables. Effectively a particular thing is regulated so that another thing---or homeostasis in the bigger picture---is maintained. That is the lab part of the equation, what we can work out from doing elegant experiments, but it does not end there because as scientists we have to find a way to translate that information so it can be applied.

Fluid balance: what do we regulate?

The regulation of fluid balance in the body is complex in its details, but at its core it is the same: one thing is regulated and the body responds in many ways to protect it. In this case the regulated variable is the concentration of your blood, or the plasma osmolality. As you exercise and sweat, it rises, and so you first stop producing urine. . .and as you continue to lose fluid you then become quite thirsty. As you ingest a bit of fluid it helps balance out the plasma osmolality so that it does not get too high.

The result of all this? You actually protect the volume of fluid that is inside the cells by balancing the plasma osmolality, but another thing that happens is that you lose some weight, and this is the important part that dieticians and coaches and kinesiology majors everywhere are not taught: body weight is not regulated during exercise. It is important enough to repeat: body weight is not regulated, and so your body does not care if you lose a few kilograms or pounds or pints or stone (depending on where you reside!). It simply does not feature, and so to tell people to replace their weight losses or to use this as a gauge is entirely incorrect as your fluid balance operates independent from your weight. Your body has an entire mechanism that regulates your plasma osmolality---your thirst. but if you want to read more about that then just click back to October 2007 to tackle the details.

On our way to 2,000,000!

So in the mean time we will carry on and hope to have our 2,000,000th visitor sooner than another two years, and one thing we can anticipate with confidence is that if Gebrselassie breaks his 2:03:59 world record at the Berlin Marathon in just three weeks, we are going to be a lot closer. He has stated that he will make yet another attempt on the record, and in many ways there is no reason why he cannot break it again. Of course it will be difficult and he must get his pacing exactly right, but over his long career he has proved that he is willing and able to punch through to the next level. If he does, you know where to find the best analysis of that performance!

Jonathan

Caster Semenya debate: Some physiology explained

How do you know the sex of a chromosome? Pull down its genes! If only it were that easy...

Today, Team SA arrived back in South Africa after the World Championships in Berlin. The welcome home ceremony was really about one person - Caster Semenya, and the scenes in Johannesburg were just extra-ordinary. We have never seen such a huge reception for an athletics team (or even Olympic team). What a pity the "congratulations" was clouded in the controversy and political rhetoric that has now come to dominate the story.

I have some science to put out there, but to introduce that scientific discussion, I first want to put out some quotes from Leonard Chuene, who is the president of Athletics South Africa:

“Let me warn professors and scientists that the only scientists I believe in are the parents of this child,” Chuene said. “One scientist from a stupid university somewhere is going to erase the entire life of this girl.” The IAAF is still awaiting the results of the tests but Chuene refused to clarify what the process was or what would happen depending on the results.

“Why should we worry about other people’s tests?” Chuene said. He also sent out a warning to the IAAF not to punish Semenya. “We are here and one thing they mustn’t do is suspend her.”

Honestly, I couldn't make this up if I tried, those were his exact words. So, I think it safe to say that everything from this point onwards is not of concern to anyone in Athletics South Africa, since it involves my attempt at explaining some of the science around this matter of sex testing and why it's so complex.

Intersex conditions and biological basics

Last week, when all this broke, I said that at some point, I'd pull together the basics of the biology of these conditions, and put it out there for you to read. I must stress that these are basics, and they don't nearly do justice to the complexity of disorders of sexual development, or DSDs.

DSDs are the disorders that are often responsible for producing what is known as the intersex condition, a condition where a person develops ambiguous genitalia, and often, their genetic sex (determined by the chromosome) differs from their phenotypic sex (their exernal appearance and physiological functions, to be broad). In other words, if you have thought that XX = female and XY = male, you are about to have your perception challenged!

If you thought that a simple observation, and the presence of genitalia was the clincher, you'd again be wrong. Sometimes, genitalia are so ambiguous, that trained medical doctors will disagree and debate for hours over whether someone is male or female, even when that person is already a teenager. Final year medical students, when shown pictures of ambiguous genitalia, and asked to vote "male" or "female", are often wrong! Unfortunately, then, examination of genitalia (the "pants test" or "shower check"), as advocated by the politicians, is not conclusive proof of anything!

Disorders of sexual development and intersex

Now, there are a multitude of DSDs and there is interaction, different levels, and a complex process of sexual development underlying them, and I can't cover all that in this format.

However, I have done my best, and you can read my article at this website. It is a site called Competitor Running, and I contribute to it from time to time (not as often as I'd like). They requested this story, and I put together a very high level summary of the situation. So that article is my crack at summarizing the scientific basics of the debate.

Please note that this is NOT an attempt at diagnosis of Semenya's case, and it does not represent my opinion on whether she has any condition of any sort. Unfortunately, the article was titled "What is Caster Semenya?", which kind of implies an opinion is coming. That is not the case.

Rather, it is meant to inform people of the basics, and maybe the complexities, of sex testing. If you read that article, and you're somewhat confused and bewildered at how complex it is, then you've started to appreciate the issue!

And, I dare say, you'll be a step or two ahead of those in South Africa who are steadfastly refusing to let facts confuse them, or get in the way of a story.

The summary version - short, sweet and grossly oversimplified...

If you don't have the time or energy, here is the very short, three paragraph summary, which fails miserably to answer any questions!

How do you know the sex of a chromosome? You pull down its genes! Unfortunately, this test fails on both counts - neither the genes nor the jeans hold the answer! We are all told that if you have two X-chromosomes, you're female, and if you have an X and a Y chromosome, you're male. Unfortunately, reality is often not so simple. In the undifferentiated foetus, there comes a point at which a "switch" must be flicked in order to switch on male sexual development. If that switch is not thrown, then the foetus will develop into a female, with ovaries and a uterus. Female is the "default" condition.

That "switch" is part of the Y-chromosome, and comprises a set of genes that is responsible for initiating male development. If it is present, testes are formed, testosterone is produced and male development occurs. However, for any number of reasons, sometimes the switch does not work. Or, it works, but there is a "short circuit" that prevents it from having its normal effect. The consequence is that even the presence of the Y-chromosome sometimes fails to turn on male development, and the foetus continues to develop as a female. The result? An XY female. Conversely, sometimes the switch is "faultily thrown" and an XX-foetus begins to develop as a male. This happens for chromosomal, gonadal and hormonal reasons. There are also other conditions which result from levels of hormone in the mother that can affect the foetus in the same way.

The end result is that ambiguous genitalia can develop, an XY can develop as a female, an XX can develop as a male, and a number of other physiological traits can be 'mixed up'. These people are intersex, and they present the challenge with regards to sporting participation. Even once identified, there is no clear standard as to what is done with them. Some conditions, like AIS, are permitted, others evaluated. The ethical debate around this is huge, and one that I have no answers to. Only time will tell whether Semenya has any of these, or none at all. Until then, if this challenges your 'binary' view of sex and gender, then I guess it has made the point!

Again, for the full article, you can click here to read my piece.

Thanks!
Ross

P.S. Last word on the stories today of Semenya's high testosterone levels

Today, some media outlets reported that Caster Semenya's testosterone levels were three times higher than those normally expected in a urine sample. Obviously, given the context of the case, a lot of people are now saying "See, it's proof".

Unfortunately, it's not that simple. It MAY turn out to be a piece of the puzzle, it MAY become significant when put in the context of all the other results, but by itself, it actually doesn't mean too much. The main problem is that "normal" is a moving target, and there is a pretty wide range of testosterone levels in any population. So we need to understand what "normal" means - is it the typical level in the female population? Is it the highest level in the athletic population? The difference is important.

Perhaps the best way to treat this report for now is to say that the raised level is possibly a flag for something else, and further testing could establish what this is. Regardless, the position, for now, remains the same - wait on the collection of tests before drawing conclusions.

What is interesting is that this measurement was apparently obtained weeks before Berlin, and prompted the IAAF to request further testing. It was also the catalyst for them requesting that Semenya not enter the 800m event, since further testing was deemed necessary. Note that this was a request that would have been made jointly by the medical officer in charge of the testing and the IAAF, not just the IAAF. ASA refused, and the rest is, well, massive controversy.

And finally, it's now emerged that the leak that saw this process made public came because a fax was sent to the wrong person. What a pity for such a sloppy mistake to have such repercussions, and the IAAF will hopefully take action there, because they've also got a great deal to answer for when it comes to the leak. Not for the process or their policy, mind you, but for this leak, which was a grave error.

Make Berlino the official mascot of athletics

Berlino the Bear was the real star of these championships

No detailed scientific analysis this morning - rather, some sports management and marketing comment, and a dose of humor. Humor, because we all need it especially when we get involved in charged debates around sex testing and doping and cheating and all the other negative press that dominates sport too often.

But this article, from the Times, is a great read, and clever too, following on from my nomination of Berlino the Bear as the greatest sports mascot ever. Tomorrow, Letsrun.com are going to start a petition to make Berlino the official mascot of all World Champs.


Athletics is a sport whose popularity is on the rise - Usain Bolt's performances and personality have given the sport a health-boost like nothing seen before. In my opinion, Bolt is, at this moment, the most charismatic and recognizable face in sport, let alone athletics, and it's a great time for athletics. Any addition that adds to the value only helps, and marketers should take great credit for Berlino - whether his interaction with the athletes was planned, or something he did, I don't know. Regardless, his 'chemistry' with Rogowska, Nerius, Walker, Bolt and Harting made for some great entertainment. And after all, sport competes with entertainment, so let's celebrate, and let Berlino stick around! (if you're getting this as an email, click here to go to the site to watch the video!)



Ross

IAAF World Champs awards

The IAAF World Champs - our Oscar awards

The IAAF World champs are over. It has been a frantic 9 days of athletics, some remarkable performances, and some dramatic controversies.

Perhaps one day, we'll look back at the 2009 Championships and remember them for Usain Bolt's double world record performance, for Kenenisa Bekele's 5000m-10000m double, and for the dominance of Jamaica in the sprints. In many respects, these World Championships have looked a lot like the Beijing Olympics.

On the other hand, they have been the Championships of surprises - no Ethiopian gold medal over 5,000m or 10,000m, no Isinbaeva medal, and a host of mild surprises over the hurdles, and it was a highly entertaining and dramatic event.

Then there was the controversy over Caster Semenya, which has dominated the media here in South Africa. Her countryman, Mbulaeni Mulaudzi, yesterday won 800m gold and sees South Africa having both 800m champions, which is a great achievement, but one which has really been tarnished by the whole situation.

However, today's post is a recap of the track and field action, not the drama currently being played out in the media. And so here are the Science of Sport "Oscars" for the IAAF World Championships.

The "Make it a double award"

This award goes to many athletes who have won double world titles in the last week. And there are many: Kenenisa Bekele stands out as having done the distance double, a remarkable achievement, and a repeat of the Beijing Games. Then there are a host of athletes who doubled up thanks to relay golds: Kerron Clement in the 400m hurdles and relay, LaShawn Merritt in the 400m and 4 x 400m relay, Sanya Richards in the same events, Allyson Felix over 200m and 4 x 400m, and Shelly-Ann Fraser in the 100m and 4 x 100m relay.

Then there athletes who medaled in two events, but not golds - Bernard Lagat in the men's 1500m (bronze) and 5000m (silver), and Yusuf Saad Kamel in the 1500m (gold) and 800m (bronze). I'm sure there are other who won multiple medals as a result of relays (Jeremy Wariner comes to mind), but you get the idea...

The "Make it a triple" award

There was only one athlete who scooped three gold medals, and that person was Usain Bolt, the star of the show for the second successive multi-day athletics meeting. After Beijing 2008, few would have thought that Bolt could repeat that level of performance in one Championships, let alone surpass it. And I guess Beijing had three world records, Berlin "only" two, but Bolt stole the show in Berlin, and has pushed athletics very much to the front of people's minds. The sport has never enjoyed such a profile, thanks to his personality and his performances. So along with the "Make it a triple" award, he also gets the "Athlete of the Championship" award.

The "Make it a quintuple" award

Once again, this goes to Usain Bolt, though this award stretches over Beijing and Berlin. Five races, five world records, and Usain Bolt was on a perfect streak. Starting on the 16th of August 2008, Bolt simply did not win gold medals without breaking world records. A 200m record, a relay record, and then a demolition of BOTH the 100m and 200m records meant that Bolt had run in five major finals and bagged five world records. The streak was ended when Jamaica "only" ran the second fastest time ever in the relay, but Bolt's star is about as bright as it can be.

The "So near, yet so Defar" award

Also called the "Go 99% and then stop", this goes, predictably, to Meseret Defar, of Ethiopia, who, in the final 10m of both the 5,000m and 10,000m races basically gave up and lost places as a result.

Defar was a heavy favourite to win gold in at least one of the two events she'd entered, particularly once Tirunesh Dibaba, the Olympic Champion, had withdrawn. In the end, she got neither, being outkicked first by Linet Masai in the 10,000m and then by Vivian Cheruiyot in the 5,000m. Defar basically stopped running in both races - in the 10,000m, she seemed injured, so rapidly did she "go backwards", and she was caught, not only for first, but all the way down to fifth. In the 5,000m, once passed by Cheruiyot, she jogged in and finished third.

Defar's greatest strength has always been her kick, but she has been matched in Berlin. Interestingly, Defar has not gotten slower - the others have caught up. The last lap in Osaka in 2007 was run in just under 59 seconds, the same as the last lap in Berlin this year. So while Defar's speed has in the past been unchallenged, she is now finding women with her, and she doesn't seem to have the sprint or the composure to hold it together all the way across the line.

The "Who is he" award?

This goes to the biggest surprise winner in Berlin, Ryan Brathwaite. The injury to Dayron Robles took out one of the week's biggest favourites, and Brathwaite stepped in to claim the title by the narrowest of margins, with three men diving for the line. A great race, and a completely unexpected champion.

The "Who is she" award?

The winner of this award depends on how you want to define "surprise". The newest surprise in the women's events was probably Caster Semenya. That said, she did come into the Champs with the worlds fastest time this year, a full second faster than anyone else, and so to say she won as an outsider is not entirely true. Her world ranking was number 1, and she finished number 1. However, consider that three weeks ago, you'd probably never heard the name Semenya, and now she may just be the most talked about woman in the sport (for the wrong reasons, from her perspective) and you appreciate just how big of an impact she had on these Championships.

But the winner of the award is Anna Rogowska, of Poland. She is not unknown (so it's a little harsh to ask "who is she?", but she was a big surprise. The biggest favourite of the whole week was Elena Isinbaeva, and she couldn't clear a height. The Pole (pardon the pun) took gold, and scoops the award for biggest upset win in women's events.

Race of the championships

There were so many, it's impossible to decide. The women's 10,000m was amazing, there were perhaps 3 lead changes in the final 120m, and a surprise winner. The men's 5,000m was incredible, with Kenenisa Bekele holding off the 1500m specialist Bernard Lagat in a great sprint.

But the winner is the men's 100m, simply because it was such an incredible performance by Usain Bolt, and Tyson Gay. Yes, Gay was beaten soundly, but he ran into previously unchartered territory, and can stand tall for his efforts. As for Bolt, well, what more can be said?

The "Kissing the tartan" award

There were an incredibly high number of falls during the week. Left, right and centre, athletes were going down and then being re-instated on appeal. First Jepkosgei fell after colliding with Semenya (talk about making a big entrance). Then a number of athletes in the women's 1500m went down. Then in the 800m for men, Abubaker Kaki fell, taking Bram Som and Marcin
Lewandowski with him. We even had medal results changed as a result of falls, when Natalia Rodriguez of Spain won the women's 1500m title after putting Gelete Burka on the ground with 200m to go. Her disqualification, and Burka's ultimate failure, may have been the most significant fall of the week.

However, for "crowd pleaser" status, Abubaker Kaki's fall takes the prize, as seen in the picture to the right! He didn't get reinstated, but he gets the consolation of having this picture of his fall receive our award for "Kissing the tartan!". You can see the whole sequence of pictures here.

The "week off award"

And finally, I'm giving myself the week off award, to recover from Berlin, where I wrote 12 articles and responded to maybe 300 comments on the Caster Semenya story in the last week! I feel as tired as Meseret Defar looked at the end of her races!

Only kidding! I'll be back later in the week when the European athletics season resumes! There's a lot of other work to be done between now and then, so do forgive some silence on the site for a day or two! Thanks for following the IAAF World Champs with us, there's more to come, especially on the Semenya story, and a whole season of athletics still to go.

Ross

Oh, wait, one last award...

For the coolest mascot ever at a sports event. All mascots should be encouraged to bring such humor to sport, because athletics needs all the growth and entertainment value it can get! Meet Berlino:


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