Heading to the stars

When will peace finally return? I want to sit back and enjoy when I watch sporting competitions and not have to constantly ask myself: Is this possible? Is that really possible? I would have to be tough, as I followed all the World Athletics Championships from 1991 to 2017 as a commentator. And also the Olympic Games from 1992 onwards (with the exception of Rio de Janeiro). Not counting the European Championships, which now exist as small or large continental title fights.

So I should be prepared if there are records again. Over and over again. Into the next incomprehensible dimension. Now it was that time again. In Eugene, the American Sydney McLaughlin finished the 400m in 50,68 seconds. There were still ten hurdles standing in the way of the 22-year-old. No woman has ever run this distance in under 51 seconds. This was simply considered impossible.

Sydney McLaughlin left her mark on the World Cup. © APA/getty / Steph Chambers

The Nigerian Tobi Amusan also overcame ten obstacles as if they weren't even there. In the end she won with 12,12 seconds. Her previous best was 12.48 seconds. It is also the huge improvements that are quite unsettling and almost cause incomprehension. They are numbers to which people like to attach the word “fabulous world record”. This is to express that we do not believe that this time can be beaten in the near future. So a record for eternity? Beamon and the long jump As initially assumed, Bob Beamon's long jump at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, when he flew 55 centimeters further than anyone had ever done before. 8.90m. It was then that the word “leap of the century” was created. But just 23 years later, in the same century, there was an improvement in a legendary competition at the World Championships in Tokyo. Carl Lewis jumped 8.91m and still came second because Mike Powell flew four centimeters further. 8,95m. We've probably long since gotten used to the fact that records probably don't last forever. Even those of Usain Bolt, the 100m in 9.58 seconds and the 200m in 19.19 seconds, both marked on the legendary blue track in the Berlin Olympic Stadium in 2009 on the occasion of the World Cup, no longer seem to be set in stone forever and ever. Noah Lyles (USA) came pretty close to the Jamaican's super time in the 200m in Eugene with 19.31 seconds. And at some point there will be a Sprinter that will replace Bolt. Duplantis is the new high-flyer It is the nature of sport that new best performances always want to be generated. Standing still is basically a backlog. The existing best performances are the driving force and motivation for each subsequent generation. With the reward of 100.000 US dollars, which is now also 100.000 euros, the importance of new records is once again underlined. Sergej Bubka was once a master of his craft, both in terms of sport and business.

The former Soviet and then Ukrainian pole vaulter set 35 world records, always by centimeters. He previously negotiated the world record bonus with the organizers of the various meetings. Sometimes he could have jumped five centimeters or more than his own mark in one jump. But that would have destroyed his business model. His world record was also broken one day. Before his eyes, the Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie jumped 6.15m in Donesk eight years ago at the meeting he organized. Bubka's record of 6.14m had stood for 20 years. Anyway. But of course this has long been a story that is entangled with the melancholy of the past, because a new high-flyer has already made his way to the stars.

Armand Duplantis has recorded a new world record. © APA/afp / JIM WATSON

Armand Duplantis, a US-born Swede (mom is Swedish), crossed 6.21m in Eugene. World record. And I'm not even surprised, because "Mondo" (only 22 years old), as everyone calls him, has indicated with his recent achievements that there doesn't seem to be any upper limit for him at the moment. As a child, he used to jump over the couch with a broomstick in the living room and has his own pole vaulting facility in his garden. But since then a lot has changed for him and for many others. There seems to be no end to improvements and innovations, especially in the materials sector. From the running tracks to the shoes and, for Duplantis and his colleagues, of course, better staffs, the path inevitably still leads into spheres that are completely incomprehensible to the average sporting consumer.

Sit back and enjoy? This is probably just a fallacy and will still not be possible, because in the next title fights or competitions of any kind, the human species will want to rise above all competitors. As it has always been like that. Presumably for centuries with all available means and resources. The terms “fable world record” or “leap of the century” are just an expression of our helplessness in being able to classify the almost incomprehensible into our usual patterns of thinking. And yet it is normal, because we want to be amazed at human performance. But at some point, you think, at some point the record hunts have to come to an end. Yes. At some point it will. But it's not that far yet.

About the person: Sigi Heinrich The renowned sports journalist, author and award-winning Eurosport commentator (including winner of the German Television Prize and the Bavarian Sports Prize) not only dedicates his column “Sigi's Spitze” to the entire diversity of sport. He also deals with topics outside of his usual profession. Sometimes very seriously, often with a mischievous wink and sometimes deliberately provocative. There should be something for everyone.

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