Documental Records olimpicos
Este documental recoge algunos de esos momentos mágicos que se han producido a lo largo de la historia de los juegos olímpicos, y que responden a la perfección al viejo lema de Pierre de Coubertin: "más rápido, más alto, más fuerte".
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00:00OLYMPIC RECORDS
00:23Olympic records
00:26CITIUS, ALTIUS, FORTIUS
00:32It was the phrase that Pierre de Coubertin, the father of the Olympic movement,
00:35proposed as a motto and inspiration to the International Olympic Committee in 1894.
00:43Translated from Latin, it means faster, higher, stronger.
00:48And it perfectly sums up the Olympic challenge.
00:52The Olympic Games, considered for a long time the pinnacle of sports excellence,
00:57inspire athletes to perform at increasingly high levels.
01:03Olympics after Olympics reach unreachable athletic heights until then.
01:09And by doing so, the athletes surprise us with some of the most exciting and memorable Olympic moments.
01:15But how do our sports heroes reach those Olympic peaks?
01:29The 200-meter sprint is one of the purest Olympic sports.
01:33The effort of a lung explosion that lasts less than 20 seconds
01:37and requires few skills or special equipment.
01:41Although in theory we could all opt for this Olympic gold medal,
01:47we know it is not so.
01:51The truth is that for the vast majority,
01:53the doors to Olympic posterity close to us as soon as we are born.
01:57And in good part it is due to the genes with which we are born.
02:02If we took a walk through one of the Olympic Villas,
02:05we would see some of the tallest people in the world.
02:08If we took a walk through one of the Olympic Villas,
02:10we would see some of the tallest people in the world.
02:13Some of the people with the widest shoulders in swimming,
02:16others with exceptional musculature like some of the sprinters,
02:20and we would also see very light people like the gymnasts and some of the runners.
02:26Some of those differences in shape and body size or height
02:30are typical since our birth.
02:32Surely we will not reach the right height or physique
02:35for some sports or competitions.
02:40And in a sport like 200 meters,
02:42a good physiology is a crucial part of a very dodgy element,
02:47the talent.
02:51What I got, I owe it to have made a lot of effort
02:55and to have made very good decisions.
02:58But in addition to all that,
03:00there is luck,
03:02the enormous luck of having been blessed with the necessary talent,
03:06and that is not my merit.
03:08That must be the starting point.
03:11Even if you are totally focused or you try as hard as you can,
03:15if you do not have talent,
03:17you cannot win a gold medal in an Olympic Games.
03:20You cannot be an Olympic champion.
03:23But even a sport as simple as running
03:26involves a lot of disciplines.
03:28The necessary physiology to be a sprinter
03:30is very different from what a resistance athlete needs.
03:35Physiology is an essential part to achieve the maximum performance.
03:39The sprinters have very large muscles
03:41capable of producing high levels of power.
03:45The muscle fibers, which we call fast contraction fibers,
03:48allow to produce a lot of explosive force,
03:51but not to maintain a high intensity exercise for a long time.
03:57On the contrary, marathon runners are much thinner,
04:01their muscles are very resistant to fatigue
04:04and are composed of slow-twitch fibers.
04:08They can contract producing relatively low levels of strength,
04:12but for much longer.
04:16The Olympic marathon is one of the most impressive sports tests.
04:2142 kilometers and 195 meters at a dizzying pace.
04:26The tension we see on the faces of marathon runners
04:29during the last stages of the race
04:31reflects how, after almost two hours of maximum physical effort,
04:35the body literally begins to fade.
04:38What we see during the last stages of a marathon
04:41is the human body working just before running out of fuel.
04:45Running out of fuel can be quite catastrophic,
04:48something obvious when we see a person in that state.
04:53And that allows us to understand when and why it happens,
04:57and perhaps even more importantly, how to prevent it from happening.
05:02You could say that in a marathon,
05:04the limits are marked by the stomach and the intestine,
05:07not the legs or the heart.
05:09Taking into account the fuel needed to run a marathon,
05:12the pace at which they run and the energy that requires it,
05:15it is about trying to get fuel from any available source of sugar.
05:19The rate at which carbohydrates or sugars
05:22pass from the stomach to the intestine
05:24is very important.
05:26I think understanding what happens in that situation
05:29would probably allow us to reach new limits
05:32in many of the records that you see.
05:37Many already consider Letío Pequen Enisa Bekele
05:40a future marathon star,
05:42and perhaps he is even the one who left the record
05:45under the magic bar.
05:47Letío Pequen Enisa Bekele,
05:49a former marathon runner,
05:51is a future marathon star,
05:53and perhaps he is even the one who left the record
05:56under the magic bar of two hours.
05:58He currently holds the Olympic records
06:00of 10,000 and 5,000 meters,
06:02and has the ideal physique for endurance races.
06:08If you look at a person like Bekele,
06:10the first thing we see is that he is very light,
06:13but he also has a great engine inside.
06:17However, for someone to be able to convert
06:19that energy into speed in a very efficient way,
06:22he also has to have trained a lot.
06:24But even before he became an athlete,
06:27I think his aptitude is related
06:30to certain hereditary characteristics.
06:36East and North African athletes
06:38have dominated long-distance Olympic competitions
06:41for the last 15 years.
06:43There is no doubt that in those regions
06:45long-distance races are very popular,
06:48but could genetic differences also explain
06:51why some countries achieve better results
06:54in certain disciplines?
06:58Genetic differences between human beings
07:00of different races or different parts of the world
07:03are a very interesting question.
07:05We see that runners from East Africa
07:07dominate endurance races,
07:09and those from West Africa speed races,
07:12like many Afro-Caribbeans
07:14whose ancestors came from West Africa.
07:17It would probably be too simplistic
07:19to say that everything is due to their genetic characteristics.
07:22Surely we need many more factors
07:24to explain this performance.
07:31But the truth is that the original runners
07:33from West Africa have won
07:35most of the Olympic speed races
07:38during the last 30 years.
07:41And a runner is questioning the limits
07:43that until today we considered possible.
07:48He's six feet taller than the others,
07:50and he's 1.96 meters long.
07:52That's not unique.
07:54Many other people at that height
07:56try to be a fast runner,
07:58but he has a unique ability.
08:00He takes advantage of his long stance
08:02and also has the necessary coordination
08:04to alternate the steps of his long legs,
08:07as if they were much shorter than he is.
08:10And that's why I know that he is a very good runner.
08:14Ultimately, in Usain Bolt,
08:16everything is reduced to his muscular mechanics.
08:19He has an extraordinary musculature,
08:21and that has to be due to some characteristic of his anatomy.
08:24I imagine he was quite fast when he was a kid.
08:33He has a great sense of balance,
08:35and he has a great sense of speed.
08:37He has a great sense of balance,
08:39and he has a great sense of speed.
08:42The tendon will have developed in the same way
08:44as the muscle to be able to transfer
08:46that force and that power
08:48through the joints in a very effective way.
08:51He's able to store the elastic energy of each step
08:54and use it to propel himself
08:56to the next one when he takes off from the ground.
09:01When you see someone doing that with your own eyes,
09:04you can clearly see that with every step he takes,
09:07he's leaving his rivals a little further behind.
09:10But you can also see clearly that he could still improve,
09:13even though he's already the fastest man in the world.
09:28Yes, I know I appear in the history books,
09:31and people say, Usain is one of the greatest,
09:34but I want to do it again.
09:36A lot of people have won it once,
09:38and a few people have done it twice,
09:40and I think I'll become a legend.
09:44It'll be interesting to see in the next few years
09:47if he can continue that.
09:51But does every new record indicate
09:53that elite athletes are in better shape and faster?
10:02I don't think that human beings are in better shape
10:05or faster or stronger than they were 100 or 1,000 years ago.
10:10We don't evolve that fast.
10:12But environmental changes do.
10:14Today, athletes are professionals,
10:16they train constantly,
10:18and scientific and medical resources
10:20allow us to understand how to make that better.
10:23How to make that better.
10:33But for most athletes,
10:35what they need to do is to train,
10:37and certain techniques and information
10:39to inform that person,
10:41and determine if they're going to be successful on the podium.
10:46In the 1920s, the Finnish Paavo Nurmi
10:49was probably the first athlete
10:51to apply scientific principles to his training.
10:55He knew how to see the relationship between work and rest,
10:58and his system of division of training
11:00in numerous periods of effort
11:02laid the foundations of training at intervals.
11:06Interval training consists of
11:08dividing the exercise into periods of activity and rest,
11:11and its goal is to allow you to train
11:13in the period of activity with greater intensity,
11:16if you try to keep a steady pace all the way through.
11:20We can see that the classic examples
11:22of athletes who used this type of training
11:25were chosen by the Finnish Paavo Nurmi
11:27and the Finnish Paavo Nurmi,
11:29because they were able to see
11:31the relationship between work and rest
11:33and that's why they chose this type of training,
11:36because they discovered that it worked.
11:38It's obvious that they tried it and thought,
11:40I'm improving more than my rivals.
11:42Perhaps the most enthusiastic supporter
11:44of interval training
11:46was the Czech runner Emil Zatopek.
11:48For him, a day of training
11:50consisted of a marathon
11:52divided into sprints of 100, 200 and 400 meters,
11:55often running repetitions
11:57with heavy military boots.
12:00Zatopek's training is especially interesting
12:02because he did it quite often,
12:04usually every day.
12:07It's also important to consider
12:09how he could keep that pace.
12:11It's not just about the type of training,
12:13but also about being quite resistant
12:15to be able to withstand that type of training.
12:17And it's obvious that he was.
12:21And it was worth it.
12:23In 1952 he won the gold
12:25in the 5,000 meters in an exciting race
12:27with a very intense last lap
12:29in which he came back from the fourth position
12:31to win in a record time.
12:35A few days later he also won
12:37in the 10,000 meters,
12:39also breaking the record of that distance.
12:42And then Zatopek decided
12:44unexpectedly to participate
12:46in the Olympic marathon for the first time.
12:51Without a race strategy,
12:53he decided to run with the British Jim Peters,
12:55holder of the world record.
12:57To try to exhaust the Czech,
12:59Peters imposed a dizzying pace,
13:01but was unable to maintain it
13:03and withdrew from the race.
13:05However, Zatopek managed to finish it,
13:07win his third gold
13:09and set a new Olympic record.
13:13To this day he is still the only man
13:15who has won gold in the three distances
13:17in the same Olympics.
13:19The scientists continue to try to understand
13:21with exactitude how the body responds
13:23to the tensions of extreme training.
13:27We study in detail the adaptation
13:29to each training session,
13:31the cardiovascular response,
13:33the intensity of the athlete's breathing,
13:35what happens in his muscles,
13:37what causes fatigue,
13:39and also the long-term or chronic adaptation,
13:41what happens in his muscles,
13:43what causes fatigue,
13:45what happens in his muscles,
13:47what happens in his muscles,
13:49what causes fatigue,
13:51and also the long-term or chronic adaptation,
13:53which is what every coach and every athlete
13:55pursues, which is adaptation.
13:57One of the advances that science,
13:59medicine and technology
14:01are beginning to introduce
14:03in training sessions
14:05is the ability to provide
14:07information in real time.
14:09To obtain that information
14:11as soon as possible
14:13allows to perfect the behavior
14:15In the world of elite sport, the sensors allow the coaches to know how quickly the athletes react to the shot.
14:24And the real-time tracking allows the coaches to obtain information about the vital biochemical indicators of the athlete at the time.
14:36Swimming is another sport that has taken great advantage of the most advanced technology.
14:41The complexity of the movements of the swimmers and the unpredictable influence of hydrodynamics
14:46prevented, until recently, to obtain real-time analysis beyond the humble stopwatch.
14:52But recently, the efforts to adapt a technology used by the military in submarines
14:58have allowed to apply science to swimming.
15:01The University of Southampton has developed a trailing system that the swimmer can attach to a belt.
15:10By swimming in the opposite direction, they can know how much force they are applying and also their resistance to water.
15:17The signal goes up when you face a greater resistance.
15:21They can apply their technique or apply a greater force to reduce that resistance and consequently advance at a greater speed.
15:31This technology applied to swimming has allowed, in part, to develop what we know about the technique of swimming and armwrestling.
15:37For example, an athlete can swim with a small sensor on his back and that information can be transmitted wirelessly to his coach.
15:45This will provide real-time information about his turns to check at what speed he has reached the wall and moved away from it,
15:51his armwrestling rhythm and how often he applies the force of his armwrestling.
15:55So we live a very exciting moment for swimming.
16:01So what could be the future of the training of elite athletes?
16:11The future is really going to have a lot more individual training.
16:15I think one of the most interesting fields during the next 20 years will be genomics,
16:20what we understand about a DNA profile and its relationship to what makes it successful.
16:26Now, of course, that the human genome, our genetic map, has been deciphered completely,
16:32we have a better understanding of what genes are associated with elite performance.
16:38Having said that, we are probably still a little bit far from understanding how all the variations between some of those genes
16:46can influence the overall performance.
16:51But before the sports scientists, the athletes themselves already applied their basic scientific analysis
16:57and achieved revolutionary advances.
17:01In 1960, the French skier Jean Bournet was waiting to compete in the men's descent against the clock in Squaw Valley
17:08and had a secret weapon.
17:11He had developed a very aerodynamic posture called the egg.
17:17Bournet believed that his new posture would give him an advantage over the usual upright posture.
17:22And he was right.
17:24He won by half a second and the skiers from all over the world would soon adopt his egg posture.
17:33PARRY O'BRIEN
17:40The American Parry O'Brien also applied the laws of physics to his sport, weight throwing.
17:46Before the change adopted by O'Brien, the usual throw was quite simple.
17:51O'Brien began by looking at the back of the circle and then rotated 180 degrees on himself
17:57to generate an additional impulse and thus reach a greater distance.
18:01Thanks to the so-called linear technique, O'Brien achieved gold
18:05and established Olympic records in the 1952 and 1956 Olympics.
18:09Since then, it has been adopted by all weight throwers.
18:20But creating new techniques and applying them for the first time when there is an Olympic medal at stake
18:25not only involves great creativity, but also a lot of cold blood.
18:30The American Dick Button, a legend in figure skating,
18:34invented the double axel during his training just before the final phase of the 1948 Olympic Games.
18:42But he had never executed it in a competition.
18:46When you are 17 or 18 years old, everything goes well.
18:51You try anything, you are not afraid and you do it.
18:57I had been practicing the double axel and two days before I managed to do it well.
19:03It was a huge risk because I was not completely sure.
19:07I did not have the necessary confidence and it did not come out perfectly.
19:12If you look closely at the recording, you can see that it is not perfect.
19:18It is a very dangerous movement because it takes off forward
19:22and if your position is not correct and you falter,
19:25you can end up with both feet in the air and land on your back.
19:30Today everyone does it double and even triple.
19:34If you want to win today at the Olympics, you are expected to do a triple axel.
19:40Four years later, at the end of the free program in Oslo, Button did it again.
19:45He executed the first triple jump ever seen during a competition.
19:49His performance was worth the gold medal.
19:54You want to do new things because that's what it's about.
19:57You were trying things you did not know how to do,
20:00because no one had told you that they could not be done.
20:04That's why you assumed you could do them.
20:06It's like running the mile in less than four minutes.
20:09As soon as we did it, everyone else did it too.
20:12At the beginning of the 1960s, the techniques used in the high jump
20:20were the ventral roller and the scissors.
20:27The American Dick Fosbury had tried both, but felt unable to progress.
20:36I never really thought about changing my style until I got to high school.
20:42I was trying to jump a height I had never jumped before.
20:46That's when I knew I had to do something different.
20:51There was no concept or plan.
20:55What I did was try to lift my hips.
20:58My shoulders went back and it worked.
21:02By the end of that training, I had improved my jump 15 centimeters.
21:07That was the revolution.
21:11In two years, I developed it to the point of turning my back to the bar,
21:16getting over it with my head in front and arching over it.
21:22That's where the flop technique came from.
21:26It was an evolution.
21:29Fosbury made this evolution known in an international competition
21:33during the 1968 Olympics in Mexico.
21:36The spectators loved it and it soon became known as the Fosbury Flop.
21:45Everyone noticed.
21:47They screamed, laughed and applauded.
21:50They said, look at this weird technique he's using.
21:55And he's winning.
21:59The final was a competition between Fosbury and his teammate, Ed Carathers.
22:04Both had managed to jump over 2 meters and 20 centimeters.
22:07They only had one jump left and the pressure was enormous.
22:21We were competing for the gold medal, jumping 2 meters and 22 centimeters.
22:27A height that none of us had ever cleared before.
22:32It was my third attempt.
22:34If I failed, Ed could still win.
22:37The pressure was enormous.
22:40Carathers didn't make it over that height,
22:42but Fosbury made it and won the gold medal.
22:46His innovative technique had shown his critics that they were wrong.
22:50The Fosbury Flop was born.
22:56I can barely remember jumping and jumping with joy.
23:02It was the best day of my life.
23:06I had surpassed my best personal record in an Olympic Games.
23:10I set a national record, an Olympic record and won the gold medal.
23:22One of the amazing experiences of my life
23:27is that I discovered this technique.
23:31I was fortunate to name it Fosbury Flop.
23:37Today it's something universal
23:39and I feel very proud and honored
23:42that I could contribute to the sport of athletics.
23:48Sometimes, adapting a technique slightly can yield great results.
23:53At the end of the 1980s,
23:55Sergei Bobka, the legendary jumper with Soviet Flop,
23:58developed a sequence of positions and pressures
24:01that gave him the advantage over his competitors
24:03and allowed him to reach new heights.
24:14The Flop must get penetration.
24:18The Flop must not bend over the ground
24:20as most jumpers did.
24:23If you move the Flop in this way,
24:25you can easily get it to adopt a greater rigidity
24:28and a greater grip.
24:30It's a more natural technique.
24:32I would say it is related to adequate technical skills.
24:36Doing it that way gave me a lot of power.
24:40But due to the boycotts and injuries,
24:42Bobka only participated in an Olympic jump final with Flop,
24:45the one in Seoul in 1988.
24:48Sergei Bobka, from the Soviet Union, 5.90 meters.
24:53Second attempt.
24:55However, his 5.90-meter jump
24:57was not only enough to get the gold,
24:59but also established a new Olympic record
25:02of jumping with Flop.
25:06Winning the Olympic Games was my dream.
25:09All this emotion, all those screams,
25:12it was all so natural.
25:15What they screamed, what they did,
25:17it was all spontaneous.
25:19Spontaneous and unpredictable.
25:21It was a surprise even for me.
25:27Bobka broke the world record
25:29of jumping with Flop on 35 occasions,
25:31both on a covered track and in the open air,
25:33something really amazing.
25:35And he still holds the current record
25:37in the open air with 6.14 meters,
25:39but he could have reached higher heights.
25:42Japanese sports scientists
25:44analyzed my best jumps
25:46and said that with the technique I used
25:48it would be possible to jump 6.30 meters
25:50or 6.40 meters.
25:53Today the same rules are still used
25:55and the same equipment,
25:57so it's achievable.
26:04Despite the almost perfect technique
26:06of athletes like Bobka,
26:08the jump with Flop is a good example
26:10because the equipment has helped
26:12to break records over the years.
26:14In the Olympic Games of 1896,
26:16William Hoyt won the competition
26:18of jump with Flop with a jump
26:20of 3.30 meters.
26:22Since then, the advances in the
26:24manufacture of the Flops have been
26:26responsible for the huge increase
26:28in the heights achieved in this
26:30discipline over the years.
26:34The jump with Flop has a long history.
26:36The first Flops were made
26:38with bamboo and wood,
26:40but science has allowed its manufacture
26:42with carbon fiber and glass fiber,
26:44much more resistant and efficient materials.
26:46When you apply that force,
26:48the jump can be straightened
26:50much more effectively
26:52and help you reach much higher heights.
26:54Athletes also improve,
26:56but those materials allow
26:58to accelerate the development
27:00of their equipment
27:02and reach higher heights.
27:04Even in those sports
27:06that depend less on technology,
27:08the science of materials
27:10is beginning to help
27:12athletes to improve their brands.
27:20We personalize the mechanical properties
27:22of the nails used by sprinters.
27:24We study how the modifications
27:26of the rigidity of those nails
27:28can influence their performance.
27:30What we do is invite the athlete
27:32to the laboratory
27:34and ask him to perform
27:36a series of athletic movements
27:38to see how he reacts
27:40to those modifications.
27:42We repeat those movements
27:44with shoes of different rigidity
27:46to try to maximize
27:48the output power
27:50of their joints.
27:52Then we can customize
27:54a set of nails,
27:56take them to the track,
27:58to the environment where they train,
28:00and we have seen improvements
28:02in the laboratory.
28:04After working with elite athletes,
28:06we have seen improvements,
28:08but it might be a while
28:10before they use them
28:12in an important competition.
28:14Cycling is one of the sports
28:16in which technology
28:18has had the greatest influence.
28:20And Mike Burroughs is one
28:22of the most influential
28:24designers of cycling.
28:26He has been experimenting
28:28with aerodynamic resistance
28:30for a long time.
28:32If you are on a bicycle
28:34at high speed
28:36on a flat road
28:38and no wind,
28:40when you reach 48 km per hour,
28:4290% of what prevents you
28:44from going faster
28:46is the resistance of the air.
28:48People think that everything
28:50depends on the rider,
28:52but it is not like that.
28:54Both factors influence
28:56the energy required
28:58to overcome them.
29:00Going twice as fast
29:02means pedaling eight times more.
29:04Since the early 1980s,
29:06Burroughs, an enthusiast
29:08of competition cycling,
29:10has been discreetly applying
29:12his great skill for design
29:14and engineering to develop
29:16one of the most emblematic
29:18bicycles in history.
29:20In 1982, I came up with the idea
29:22of making a bicycle
29:24with carbon fiber.
29:26I understood that if I could
29:28mold the whole frame
29:30in carbon fiber,
29:32its best aerodynamic response
29:34would mean a significant advance.
29:36It worked very well for me,
29:38but I am not a great cyclist
29:40and I did not win many races.
29:42Nobody noticed at all.
29:44Burroughs had to find
29:46a better cyclist
29:48for his revolutionary bicycle.
29:50With the help of the manufacturer
29:52and carpenter in Paro.
29:54Many revolutionary
29:56technical improvements
29:58had occurred to him.
30:00Wheels held by one side,
30:02a bicycle with an aerodynamic profile.
30:04Mike had a friend who worked
30:06at Lotus.
30:08They met and told him,
30:10I'm working on this,
30:12I could get to the Olympics.
30:14Do you know someone
30:16who could participate
30:18in an Olympics?
30:20I think it was all
30:22that influenced my position
30:24on the bicycle,
30:26very radical and aerodynamic,
30:28that I would not leave
30:30throughout my career.
30:34When Bortman came
30:36to the Olympic Games
30:38of Barcelona to participate
30:40in the individual chase
30:42of 4,000 meters,
30:44his bicycle captured
30:46all eyes.
30:48In the final, Bortman faced
30:50the German Jens Lehmann,
30:52then world champion.
30:54Bortman clearly dominated
30:56the test from the starting shot
30:58to finally reach and overcome
31:00the unfortunate Lehmann
31:02achieving a round victory.
31:04I never believed
31:06it would happen,
31:08not even when we were
31:10already in the same line.
31:12I didn't even believe it
31:14until I got over it,
31:16and that's the end of the race.
31:36Having a bicycle
31:38was at least as good
31:40as any other,
31:42and probably better.
31:44I was psychologically
31:46sure that others
31:48thought it was very different
31:50and liked it.
31:52It was just great
31:54to know that no one
31:56had any advantage
31:58over me there.
32:00Many people talk
32:02about the placebo effect
32:04that accompanies
32:06the new equipment.
32:08From the field of neuroscience
32:10we are beginning to understand
32:12the effect that can have
32:14on your physiology.
32:18The ability of the mind
32:20to influence the performance
32:22of the body was demonstrated
32:24by Dr. Jamie Pringle
32:26of the English Institute of Sports,
32:28who recreated an experiment
32:30carried out for the first time
32:32by the South African physiologist
32:34Timothy Knox.
32:36With him, he demonstrated
32:38how the athletes' physical
32:40performance was affected
32:42by the new equipment.
32:44We got individuals
32:46to exercise for about
32:4810 minutes until they came back in.
32:50In the next session,
32:52they did exactly the same test
32:54but with a clock that went
32:56a little bit slower.
32:58The individuals thought
33:00they were going to exercise
33:02for 10 minutes,
33:04but they were actually
33:06able to maintain the same
33:08effort for another 2 minutes
33:10just because of their perception
33:12of time.
33:26Understanding and taking advantage
33:28of the power of the mind
33:30is a key factor to achieve
33:32maximum performance.
33:34And as the pressure on the athletes
33:36is increasing,
33:38the sports psychologist
33:40is increasingly important.
33:42Athletes are under financial
33:44pressure, they have to train,
33:46they have to travel a lot,
33:48and that is another added pressure,
33:50the expectations of the public,
33:52the expectations of the technical
33:54body.
33:56And also a failure
33:58has serious consequences.
34:00It's the end
34:02of their sports career.
34:06What I've done has been
34:08applying what I know
34:10about the human mind.
34:12I ask the athletes,
34:14what do you want to do?
34:16What are you doing?
34:18What can't you do?
34:20And then I try to solve it.
34:22To do that, I try to give them
34:24an idea of what their mind
34:26can and can't do and how it works.
34:28And then we analyze
34:30what they're trying to achieve
34:32and we optimize that.
34:34We know from the images of the brain
34:36that it distributes the blood
34:38depending on which part we want to use.
34:40So when I proved that certain parts
34:42of the brain make you feel
34:44a little unstable and emotional
34:46and other parts make you calm down,
34:48I added 2 plus 2 and I asked myself,
34:50is there any way that athletes
34:52can modify the blood flow
34:54to the areas they want it to be in?
34:56So what I'm asking is, explain to the athlete
34:58how this model works,
35:00how he can take advantage of it
35:02to improve the brainwashing.
35:04Many attribute to Dr. Peters
35:06a decisive contribution
35:08to the success
35:10of the British cycling team
35:12during the last decade.
35:14Chris Hoy, one of the members
35:16of that team, was subjected
35:18to enormous pressure
35:20during the 1,000 meters
35:22against the clock
35:24at the Athens 2004 Olympics.
35:26To work optimally,
35:28you have to sit down and think,
35:30and my task was to get into
35:32that young man's head
35:34and tell him what he was going to face,
35:36what he would probably have to do
35:38about it and where he could fall apart.
35:42Chris was the world champion,
35:44so he would be the last to compete
35:46and he found himself in an extraordinary position.
35:48He saw how Shane Kelly,
35:50the Australian runner,
35:52set a new Olympic record
35:54that would then beat the German Stefan Neimke.
35:56When the penultimate cyclist,
35:58the French Arnaud Tornain,
36:00broke the record again,
36:02Chris knew he had to do
36:04the best race of his life.
36:06Not only did I have to wait
36:08to run, I also had to see
36:10how the record, my goal,
36:12was beaten over and over again
36:14with marks that I had not
36:16achieved before.
36:18I thought, even if I do the best race
36:20of my life, I will not get more
36:22than the bronze medal.
36:24But I tried not to think about that
36:26We were working specifically
36:28on that possibility of the effect
36:30that someone could have
36:32on a magnificent race
36:34and how to face it psychologically.
36:36Chris was an exceptional student
36:38with incredible abilities
36:40and he learned to do it.
36:42As he himself says in his book,
36:44he practiced it thousands of times
36:46and it is literally true.
36:48We visualized over and over again
36:50exactly what would happen
36:52and how he would face it.
36:56Chris's tactics worked perfectly
36:58and he pulverized his previous
37:00best personal time.
37:02He got the gold,
37:04the bronze,
37:06the bronze,
37:08the bronze,
37:10the bronze,
37:12the bronze,
37:14the bronze,
37:16the bronze,
37:18the bronze,
37:20the bronze,
37:22the bronze,
37:24the bronze,
37:26the bronze,
37:28the bronze,
37:30the bronze,
37:32the bronze,
37:34the bronze,
37:36the bronze,
37:38the bronze.
37:40I remember looking up
37:42and I see my first Dakotas
37:44and with the letters OR
37:46Which means Olympic Shark record
37:48I could see for a moment
37:50my family inclined
37:52that we were looking for, it was just unbelievable.
37:59As a psychologist, you try not to get too emotional,
38:03but I'm human, and as a psychologist,
38:05when I moved away from him, I also wanted to live and breathe that moment.
38:09It was a fantastic experience, a great euphoria.
38:17You watch the Olympic Games,
38:19you see the athletes at the top of their sports careers,
38:22and they look super confident,
38:24nothing can stop them,
38:26but on the way to the Olympics,
38:28there are many tough days in which you're not sure you're going to make it.
38:32So when you get on the podium and you see the flag raised,
38:35it's something you've dreamt about all your life.
38:38And that can be an overwhelming moment,
38:40and without a doubt, for me, it was.
38:42I never dreamt of something like that.
38:44I never dreamt that I would become an Olympic champion,
38:47and much less four times.
38:49Psychologists can't do anything
38:51unless they've already laid the foundations,
38:54the technical team, the scientists,
38:56and the rest of the support team.
38:58They're the ones who prepare the athletes.
39:00The only thing I do is stop them from flaking.
39:05I only contributed 1%, but maybe it was a crucial percentage.
39:12Different athletes respond very differently
39:14to different types of stress,
39:16and there are many anecdotes and many examples of athletes
39:19who practically grow in the face of adversity.
39:23In all races, it's important to have a mental strategy.
39:26It doesn't matter if it's 100 or 10,000 metres.
39:29You can't just be physically prepared to compete and compete.
39:34You can have the legs in good shape but fail that day.
39:37So the psychological side is a very important element.
39:40Unfortunately, we see cases where the athletes
39:42are doing wonderfully during training.
39:45They have a perfect physical and physiological state,
39:48but that day they compete below their capabilities.
39:58No one doubts that for an athlete to perform at their best,
40:01a good mental preparation is crucial.
40:04After being about to lose the bronze medal in 1984
40:07during his first Olympics,
40:09Canadian speed skater Dan Jansen
40:11managed to dominate his sport in the mid-80s.
40:15In 1988, he came to Calgary as the world champion in speed,
40:18and was a sure bet for the gold in the 500-metre race.
40:22But on the morning of the final,
40:24Jansen received devastating news
40:26about his sister Jane, suffering from leukemia.
40:32The morning of the race,
40:34I got a phone call at six in the morning.
40:38It was my family from the hospital,
40:40and they said, Jane is not well.
40:42She has very low blood pressure.
40:44She probably won't make it through the day.
40:47My brother came to the Olympic Village
40:49and we spent two or three hours talking and walking.
40:52Then he left.
40:54And an hour and a half later,
40:56they called me again to tell me that my sister had died.
41:01Twenty-four hours before I knew I was going to win.
41:04And when I got to the warm-up track,
41:06I felt like I had never skated before.
41:12Completely disconcentrated,
41:14Jansen suffered a fall in the 500 metres
41:16and could not finish the race.
41:19Days later, with the gold in his hands
41:21and about to set a new world record in the 1,000 metres,
41:24the same thing happened to him.
41:37What else could have happened to me that week?
41:41I lost my sister and I did not cross the finish line
41:44in any of the two races.
41:46It was a horrible week.
41:49The next four years, Jansen remained at the top of his discipline,
41:52setting a new world record in the 500 metres,
41:55a few months before the Winter Olympics in Albertville.
41:59But once again, his attempts described as shy,
42:02by the sports press, were a disappointment.
42:06He finished fourth in the 500-metre race
42:08and in a disheartening 26th place in the 1,000-metre race.
42:12Many wondered if he would ever succeed in an Olympic Games.
42:17In each and every interview I gave,
42:20I was asked two questions.
42:22If I was going to be thinking about my sister
42:24or if I was going to fall.
42:26So I needed to get that out of my mind.
42:28And we did that.
42:32Jansen worked with his psychologist, Dr. Jim Lahr,
42:35and he began by dealing with the distance
42:37that he less dominated and less liked.
42:41The first thing was to write every day in my diary,
42:44I love the 1,000 metres.
42:46But I also wrote small notes that stuck all over the house,
42:49in the fridge, the mirror in the bathroom,
42:51wherever I went, I saw, I love the 1,000 metres.
42:55We combined that with all the other things we did
42:58and curiously I will never forget the day
43:00that I told myself, literally,
43:02how eager I am to do the 1,000 metres this weekend.
43:05I had never said it before,
43:07I had never thought about it before, but I did.
43:09And since then, I have always wanted to train that distance.
43:13Lillehammer's in 1994
43:15was Jansen's fourth and last Olympic Games,
43:18a last chance to win a medal.
43:20Once again, he arrived as a favourite.
43:23In the two years since Albert Bill,
43:25he had become the first speed skater
43:27to break the barrier of 36 seconds in 500 metres
43:30and had achieved the five best times in history.
43:33It seemed that nothing could stop him.
43:37There was no way I was going to stop winning that race.
43:40I thought I could break the world record,
43:42so when I got to the last corner,
43:44I forced things a little bit and the ice came off.
43:49I don't think it was the nerves or anything like that,
43:52I think it was more the aggressiveness.
43:54It was truly devastating.
43:56I felt bad for my family, for my city.
43:58Competing always implies a great responsibility, and I felt it.
44:04Dan Jansen, the fastest speed skater in history,
44:07had competed in four Olympic Games,
44:09but had never won a medal.
44:12The 1,000-metre race would be his last participation,
44:15his last chance.
44:19Maybe when the Olympic Games were celebrated,
44:21I thought about how it would be to become an Olympic champion.
44:24Before the 1,000 metres, I didn't think about that anymore.
44:27I gave up my expectations,
44:29and I concentrated on what I was going to do in skating,
44:32like I knew how to skate.
44:37Everybody's trained in a different way,
44:40and they need to see and visualise different things mentally.
44:46But in my case,
44:48it had to be about the process,
44:50skating, and going out and doing my race.
44:54And when the gun went off,
44:56I noticed that feeling that every athlete dreams of.
45:01I didn't hear anybody.
45:06I just thought about how relaxed I felt.
45:09It was the first 600 metres as if I was floating.
45:13It was a beautiful feeling.
45:16But in the 600-metre mark,
45:18Jansen slipped again.
45:21Although this time,
45:23his previous tragedies would not be repeated.
45:27He recovered without even touching the ice,
45:29and moments later,
45:31he crossed the finish line with a time worth a gold medal
45:34and a new world record.
45:36His search for Olympic glory had come to an end.
45:45When I finished, I looked up
45:47and saw the world record indicator,
45:50and it was just a relief
45:52because I had finally skated to my best level,
45:55and that was the only thing I wanted to do.
46:01Records are marks that others have to overcome,
46:04and the Olympic Games are often
46:06the stage for the greatest human achievements.
46:11What drives athletes to reach extraordinary heights
46:14is often a combination of genetics,
46:17training,
46:19technique,
46:20and psychology.
46:23But in every generation,
46:25something extraordinary can happen that transcends all that.
46:30One of those moments took place in Mexico City in 1968.
46:35It was recorded in people's minds.
46:37It was a great event
46:39because it made people think
46:41about what human beings are capable of doing.
46:44It changed the world of athletics.
46:46It even coined an adjective
46:48that had never been heard before.
46:50Vimonian.
46:52I've seen it.
46:53It looks like it's been in the air for an eternity.
46:56Wow.
46:57He did really well.
46:59On October 18, at 3.46 p.m.,
47:01it was announced that the athlete with dorsal 254,
47:04the North American Bob Vimon,
47:06was going to make his first attempt
47:08in the long jump.
47:13Making that jump on October 18,
47:15I had a strange feeling.
47:17I was very loose,
47:19more loose than most days.
47:23I didn't think I was going to make it.
47:25I didn't think I was going to make it.
47:28I didn't think I was going to break a world record,
47:31but I always thought I was going to win.
47:34I always imagined myself
47:36at the top of the podium with my gold medal.
47:43From the starting position,
47:45with his head down,
47:47he looked up and made his first steps on the track.
47:53When he hit the pit,
47:55all the spectators in the stands said,
47:57oh.
47:59And I said, wow.
48:01They asked me, how high do you think he jumped, Ralph?
48:04And I said, probably over 8.5 meters.
48:06He had a measuring device
48:08that reached up to 8.5 meters.
48:10They saw his jump,
48:12and there was still a space like that
48:14between 8.60 meters and the place where Bob had fallen.
48:17So they had to go get a measuring tape.
48:20After a long wait,
48:22the judges finally showed the result on the scoreboard.
48:26Vimon had made an amazing jump of 8.9 meters.
48:30He had broken the previous world record
48:32by more than half a meter.
48:36Once that distance appeared,
48:38the whole environment of the competition changed.
48:41We all started talking to each other,
48:44something we had never done before.
48:46And Igor said to me,
48:48Ralph, we look like children.
48:51I was just excited about what he had done.
48:54It was crazy.
48:57I mean, it was just incredible.
48:59I mean, it was just incredible.
49:01There's no words for it.
49:05When he realized the importance of his feat,
49:07he fell to the abysmal ground.
49:12Vimon had gone down in history with a single jump.
49:15Although he never competed again in an Olympic Games,
49:18Vimon's jump is still the current Olympic record.
49:268.9 meters.
49:28What are you going to do next?
49:30What are you going to do?
49:32So he left it a few years later.
49:39How do I explain that jump?
49:41I look at it now as an experience.
49:43As an experience that is the pinnacle of my life.
49:47There's something spiritual about it,
49:49whatever it is.
49:51It was a great blessing.
49:53I had planned to leave my retirement
49:55and try again,
49:57but maybe I should just let the young people jump now.
50:10Since the birth of the Olympic movement,
50:12sporting performance has been improving
50:14at a gigantic pace
50:16thanks to the application of sports science.
50:20But science can only help to a certain extent.
50:25Special things happen in the Olympic Games
50:27because the Olympic Games are special.
50:31The spirit of the Games that impregnates all the participants
50:34seems to add an intangible energy to their performance,
50:37inspiring them and raising them to Olympic heights
50:40more and more.
50:53I don't know what the limits of human ability are.
50:56Records are to be broken.
51:02We're only getting to the tip of the iceberg.
51:05We don't know what our limits are.
51:11The Olympic gold medals are not the most important thing
51:14in the Olympic Games.
51:16They're much more than that.
51:22I had no idea that that would change my life.
51:30And the adrenaline began to flow through my body
51:33in the Olympic Games,
51:37and it still does.
51:41The Olympic Games
51:43The Olympic Games.