The Perfection Point: Sport Science Predicts the Fastest Man, the Highest Jump, and the Limits of Athletic Performance
*Starred Review* Here’s a fascinating exploration of the limits of human athletic ability. The author, host of ESPN’s Sport Science, begins with Roger Bannister’s 1954 breaking of the four-minute mile. Many people had seriously wondered if this landmark could ever be achieved, but after Bannister did it, more than 300 people followed suit over the next decade. That happened not only because Bannister proved it could be done (and so inspired others to try) but also because human beings are getting faster and stronger, and athletic techniques are constantly being refined and augmented. The book is full of startling facts: the current U.S. record for holding one’s breath, for example, is a breathtaking 7 minutes and 21 seconds. But here’s the book’s most arresting element: using a variety of disciplines, including physics and physiology, Brenkus extrapolates into the future, showing us when we will reach our absolute limit of performance. For example, he posits that the fastest time a human will ever post in the hundred-yard dash will be 8.99 seconds, about 900 years from now (he also explains why this will be the absolute limit); similarly, somewhere around 2672, breath-holding ability will top out at about 14 minutes and 47 seconds. Sure to spark debate in sporting and scientific circles, the book is engagingly written, well argued, and—even when the conclusions seem almost science fictiony—entirely plausible. --David Pitt