The Real Science of Sport Podcast

Cycling, Game Theory and Group 2 Syndrome / Kerr's 222 Attempt / Teenage Phenoms Set up to Fail

Support the Science of Sport - become a supporter, [https://www.patreon.com/c/thescienceofsport] show your support, keep us ad free, and you get access to the best sports science community around! 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 [https://www.cyclingnews.com/pro-cycling/safety/no-criminally-relevant-breach-of-duty-in-death-of-muriel-furrer-during-uci-road-world-championships-as-investigation-closed/] * A device claims to measure head impact to protect MTBers [https://www.bikeradar.com/features/tech/hit-connect-explained] * Josh Kerr going for the mile World Record [https://citiusmag.com/articles/project-222-josh-kerr-targets-mile-world-record-london-diamond-league] * Gout Gout beaten in what is described as an "upset" [https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/mar/28/lachie-kennedy-upstages-gout-gout-to-win-200m-at-peter-norman-memorial], but that betrays unreasonable expectations * Article on Albert Korir's positive tests and ban [https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/athletics/albert-korir-doping-ban-new-york-marathon-b2948281.html] * Why Sooryavanshi should not be fast-tracked into the Indian T20 squad [https://www.wisden.com/series/ipl-2026/cricket-news/why-india-shouldnt-fast-track-vaibhav-sooryavanshi-t20i-side] ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

How To Win One of the World's Toughest Mountain Bike Races

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. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

REPEAT POD: Female-only Women's Sport: The IOC Announces New Policy On the Protection of Women's Sport

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 [https://stillmed.olympics.com/media/Documents/International-Olympic-Committee/EB/policy/policy-on-the-protection-of-the-female-category-english.pdf] The IOC's statement accompanying the policy [https://www.olympics.com/ioc/news/international-olympic-committee-announces-new-policy-on-the-protection-of-the-female-women-s-category-in-olympic-sport] ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Female-only Women's Sport: The IOC Announces New Policy On the Protection of Women's Sport

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 [https://stillmed.olympics.com/media/Documents/International-Olympic-Committee/EB/policy/policy-on-the-protection-of-the-female-category-english.pdf] The IOC's statement accompanying the policy [https://www.olympics.com/ioc/news/international-olympic-committee-announces-new-policy-on-the-protection-of-the-female-women-s-category-in-olympic-sport] ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Banned But Allowed: Inside the World of Therapeutic Use Exemptions in Sport / Pogacar's Dominance / World Indoor Championships

Become a member, keep us ad free! [https://www.patreon.com/thescienceofsport] Plus, you get access to our world-class community chat, and live sport chat groups. Become a supporter for a small monthly pledge at Patreon. [https://www.patreon.com/thescienceofsport] Show notes Today the Spotlight falls on Therapeutic Use Exemptions, or TUEs, that are given to athletes when they have a medical condition that requires the use of an otherwise banned substance. Last week, the International Testing Agency published the record of TUE applications for 56 sports, going back six years, and we cast our eye on some of the notable drugs, sports and cases. We explore why Growth Hormone TUEs are prevalent in gymnastics, why stimulants top the list of substances, and open up some philosophical conversations about whether TUEs should be allowed at all? Also in the show, a 'triathlon' of sports news, starting with cycling recaps of Milan San Remo where Pogacar produced an extraordinary display of dominance to win one of the two monuments missing from his resume, and from the Cape Epic, where women raced shorter distances than men this year, and we explore how the rationale for this is a little shaky. From the track, we look back at the World Indoor Championships from Poland, and in the pool, a World Record in the 50m warrants some musing on how records are fallen despite tech bans. And finally, Gareth notes with some pleasure that NFL superstars where humbled by flag football specialists, reminding us that getting to the top of any sport is not an automatic right! Links * Thoughts on cycling and the need to question [https://rmcsport.bfmtv.com/cyclisme/uci-world-tour/cyclisme-je-ne-cache-pas-mon-malaise-les-doutes-de-l-ex-coureur-dope-mentheour-sur-la-performance-de-pogacar-sur-milan-san-remo_AV-202603220261.html] as read out by Gareth * Cameron McEvoy's 50m freestyle world recor [https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/swimming/articles/c17vg19rx9eo]d * The original ITA TUE Dashboard [https://ita.sport/ita-tue-dashboard/] * Paper from the Olympics showing prevalence < 1% in the Games [https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/58/17/966] * The study on methylphenidate's performance enhancing effects [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19052141/] * Does gymnastics training inhibit growth in young girls? [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11753064/] * Intensive training and growth in female gymnasts [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3751410/#Abs1] * Jon Pike's philosophy article on TUEs in sport [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00948705.2017.1416621] * World Boxing's statement on Lin Yu-Ting's eligibility [https://worldboxing.org/statement-from-world-boxing-on-boxer-eligibility-to-compete-in-the-asian-boxing-championships-2026/] * Watch some NFL starts get bamboozled in flag football [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqLI6k8HEk8&t=1352s] ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.