WEBVTT

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The point of competitive sport is 
to find the strongest or fastest

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so people will attempt to do things 
that will improve their performance

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and when the prize money and the 
rewards are so enormous,

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as they are today, it's almost irresistible.

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As one person famously said,

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"Winning isn't the main thing, it's the 
only thing in competitive sport."

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To become the best naturally requires a 
huge natural talent or endowment.

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You also require certain mental attributes and 
psychology to be able to apply yourself.

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We've more or less reached the limits of 
human performance in most competitive sports.

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We're running as fast as humans can naturally run.

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Further increases will probably be the 
result of radical new training techniques

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or the use of performance enhancing interventions.

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Not all sports people use something 
to help them go faster,

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but a significant proportion do to either 
increase power, speed or endurance.

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In general, all substances which 
increase performance are banned,

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expect for a couple of notable exceptions.

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For example, caffeine does increase endurance 
without apparent detrimental effects

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and there are mechanical interventions that 
can have the same effects as drugs.

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For example, things called hypoxic air tents, 
which reduce the concentration of oxygen,

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like altitude training, that have 
the same effect as EPO,

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but which are legal, even though 
drugs like EPO are illegal.

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How far will this go?

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Well, to be human is to be better 
or to try to be better.

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I think this is an unending path that 
humans will continue to improve

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until we set some enforceable limits 
and that's going to be difficult to achieve

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given the ingenuity of humans and 
rapid advance of technology.

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In my view, we draw the line 
if the intervention is unsafe

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or if it corrupts the nature 
of a particular sport.

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The most controversial interventions 
that affect athletic performance

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will be interventions that affect people's minds.

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At that point we will really be intervening 
in human sport in a fundamental way.

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Boxing is a sport where people are meant to 
face their fear, face the opponent,

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if we were to remove that, we'd remove something 
significant or essential to what boxing is.

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Tiger Woods has had LASIK eye surgery to 
give him better than 20-20 vision.

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This is an example of how medical technology is 
going to be used to increase performance.

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Nobody thinks having good vision 
corrupts the nature of golf,

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that’s why there’s not a great hoo-haa about 
Tiger Woods and his LASIK eye surgery.

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The greatest concern will come once we can 
start to fundamentally affect athlete psychology.