DURHAM, N.C., July 22 (UPI) -- Not only have Olympic swimmers and sprinters gotten bigger and faster over the past 100 years, they have grown at a faster rate, U.S. researchers say.
Jordan Charles, an engineering student who graduated in the spring from Duke University, and senior author Adrian Bejan, an engineering professor, collected the heights and weights of the fastest swimmers for the 100 meters and sprinters for the 100 meters for world record winners since 1900. The researchers then correlated the size growth of these athletes with their winning times.
"The trends revealed by our analysis suggest that speed records will continue to be dominated by heavier and taller athletes," Charles said in a statement.
The study, published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, found the average human has gained about 1.9 inches in height since 1900, but the fastest swimmers are an average 4.5 inches taller and the swiftest runners have grown 6.4 inches.
