The Real Science of Sport Podcast

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In this Spotlight, we start on the cobbled roads of Belgium to explore why riding on cobbles is so hard, and how not so good vibrations compromise mechanical power, cost more energy and require more exertion to produce the same power output. It's Pogacar vs van der Poel, Round 3 this week on the cobbles of Roubaix, and we wonder whether smart tactics will be enough to overcome the Slovenian's firepower, and whether van der Poel's larger size may tilt the balance in his favour?

We discuss Jimmy Gressier's return, in Decathlon's own version of a super-shoe, as he runs an exceptional 5k road time. Speaking of Decathlon, a good week for the brand with Paul Seixas continuing his rise, this time with dominance in the Tour of the Basque Country, and hope for a challenger to Pogacar.

A new research paper suggests doping prevalence among University students of 13.7%, but it uses novel statistical methods to get there, after only 3.4% of the athletes admit to PED use. We discuss that study, and what it means for anti-doping knowledge. Less covert (but only a little) about doping are the athletes of the upcoming Enhanced Games, recently valued at $1.2 billion, but now being transparently spoken about as a 'product launch' for longevity and performance enhancement drugs. The recently disclosed peptide stack of one competitor, world's strongest man Mitchell Hooper, is the basis for a chat about the grift those Games.

Finally, our teen phenom watch list has two more names, 14-year old girls who broke 23s last week. Ross and Gareth wonder if the gap between adults and children is narrowing, or whether we're just caught in a cycle of noticing more and more such performances.

Links

Study on the effect of vibrations on physiology during cycling
Another study simulating vibrations, this time showing how much oxygen cost goes up
Article on Gressier, including his struggles with chocolate after his World title last year
World Athletics concept on the Marathon as a standalone event
The Performance Enhancing drug survey that inspired our Bayesian stats discussion
Zero positives in the 2026 Olympics - the clean games?
Mitchell Hooper's peptide stack
Forbes article on The Enhanced Games
WADA's prohibited list
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Show Notes

In this Spotlight, we kick off with cycling, and wonder whether we're seeing a tactical evolution in cycling in response to long-range attacks. We also talk about Group 2 syndrome, and why elite cyclists could be a behavioural economist's ideal cohort. Cycling safety is in the Spotlight, after the inquest into the death of Muriel Furrer concludes, and new devices over-promise on risk reduction and head impact measurement.

In athletics, Josh Kerr is going for a mile world record, and it'll actually be legitimate, while teen phenom Gout Gout is in the news, though not for winning this time. We discuss how misplaced the general expectation of teenage progress is, and why we may be setting young talent up to fail, no matter how it succeeds. Speaking of failure, Albert Korir failed three drugs tests and confessed, and is now serving a ban. Do we even care?

And finally, another teenage phenom is in the news, as Indian 15-year old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi smashed a 15-ball half century to go with a 35-ball century last year. He's now old enough to play for India. But should he? That's a different question...

Links

Article on the Muriel Furrer inquest
A device claims to measure head impact to protect MTBers
Josh Kerr going for the mile World Record
Gout Gout beaten in what is described as an "upset", but that betrays unreasonable expectations
Article on Albert Korir's positive tests and ban
Why Sooryavanshi should not be fast-tracked into the Indian T20 squad
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The Absa Cape Epic is a 700km, eight-stage, two-man team mountain bike race renowned as one of the toughest and most prestigious in the world. But what does it take to win this event against some of the world's best mountain bikers? We spoke to Mike Posthumus, the Head of Performance for the Specialised Factory Racing Off-road team, about the preparation, recovery, race tactics, and behind-the-scenes work that helped his team of Matt Beers and Tristan Nortje win the overall title. From practical tips on recovery to the amazing stats behind the performance, this is a rare insight for anyone taking on a multi-stage endurance event.


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THIS IS A REPUBLICATION OF THE SAME PODCAST AS THURSDAY 26 MARCH ON THE IOC FEMALE SPORT POLICY

With apologies for confusion, after we published our most recent podcast on the IOC's new policy for women's sport, we realized the original file had an issue with the syncing of the two audio streams. That was fixed on the day, but the glitch has continued to affect some listeners, and so we are just republishing it here, so that we can be sure that the issue is resolved for what we think is an important podcast, not one we want to be unlistenable because of that problem. Thanks for listening!

Show notes

The International Olympic Committee, under its new President Kirsty Coventry, has announced new guidelines for eligibility in women's sport. The central decision is clear: the boundaries around women's sport will be protected, with no males — whether they identify as transgender or are athletes with specified differences of sex development (DSDs) — eligible to compete in the women's category. Women's sport is now female only.

This is a strong, unified position. The policy mandates the eligibility requirement across all Member Federations, establishing a central global standard that should help bring an end to the fragmentation that has affected the sporting landscape in recent years. It also sets out a clear process for determining eligibility: screening for the presence of the SRY gene, followed by further testing where needed to confirm the specific diagnosis, and then a decision on inclusion or exclusion. specifies that eligibility for women's sport must be confirmed through a process involving screening for a gene (SRY), followed by testing to diagnose the specific question, and then inclusion or exclusion.

This represents a significant moment for women's sport. It reverses generations of policies that allowed males into women's competition, often at the expense of fairness and safety. In this short podcast, we examine the finer details of the new policy, what remains unclear, how we arrived at this point, and what the changes may mean for sport and for female athletes going forward.

Links

The IOC policy
The IOC's statement accompanying the policy
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The International Olympic Committee, under its new President Kirsty Coventry, has announced new guidelines for eligibility in women's sport. The central decision is clear: the boundaries around women's sport will be protected, with no males — whether they identify as transgender or are athletes with specified differences of sex development (DSDs) — eligible to compete in the women's category. Women's sport is now female only.

This is a strong, unified position. The policy mandates the eligibility requirement across all Member Federations, establishing a central global standard that should help bring an end to the fragmentation that has affected the sporting landscape in recent years. It also sets out a clear process for determining eligibility: screening for the presence of the SRY gene, followed by further testing where needed to confirm the specific diagnosis, and then a decision on inclusion or exclusion. specifies that eligibility for women's sport must be confirmed through a process involving screening for a gene (SRY), followed by testing to diagnose the specific question, and then inclusion or exclusion.

This represents a significant moment for women's sport. It reverses generations of policies that allowed males into women's competition, often at the expense of fairness and safety. In this short podcast, we examine the finer details of the new policy, what remains unclear, how we arrived at this point, and what the changes may mean for sport and for female athletes going forward.

Links

The IOC policy
The IOC's statement accompanying the policy
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.