ReviewSports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.)2015
Has Athletic Performance Reached its Peak?
Review in Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.), 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 39 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
39 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 95 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effects of caffeine intake on exercise performance in basketball players: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Pooled it
- A systematic review and meta-analysis of the evidence on the acute effects of caffeine on sport-specific skills, physical performance, and physiological function in female basketball players.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Pooled it
- Pooled it
- The effects of inspiratory muscle training on respiratory function and aerobic capacity in sedentary adolescents: A single-blind randomized controlled trial.Scientific reports · 2026Trial
- Acute effects of caffeine supplementation on taekwondo performance: the influence of competition level and sex.Scientific reports · 2023Trial
- Effects of acute ingestion of caffeinated chewing gum on performance in elite judo athletes.Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition · 2021Trial
- Greatest of All Time: Development of a Ranking System to Determine the Most Successful Olympic and World Championship Runners Since 1896.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2026Article
- Assessing Neuromuscular Adaptation and Kinetic Symmetry in Elite Para-Kayakers: A Wearable Body Sensor Network Case Series.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Biomechanical Differences Among Collegiate Sprinters Developed Through Specialized and Diversified Training Pathways.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Performance thresholds, efficiency, and access equity in junior girls' tennis: longitudinal analysis and bayesian forecasting of ITF rankings (2004-2029).BMC sports science, medicine & rehabilitation · 2026Article
- Article
- COVID-19 affected elite track-and-field athletes' Olympic preparation before Tokyo 2020 compared to Rio 2016.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- The Prevalence of and Factors Associated with Disordered Eating Among Adult Athletes in Italy and Lebanon.Nutrients · 2025Article
- Respiratory muscle training improves aerobic capacity and respiratory muscle strength in youth wrestlers.Frontiers in physiology · 2025Article
- Skateboarding's Olympic journey: do the performance profiles of top athletes remain consistent?Frontiers in physiology · 2025Article
- Analysis of sports records evolution and limits based on integrated features.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Building on muscles: how built environment design impacts modern sports science.BMJ open sport & exercise medicine · 2024Article
- The molecular athlete: exercise physiology from mechanisms to medals.Physiological reviews · 2023Review
- The effects of pre-task music on exercise performance and associated psycho-physiological responses: a systematic review with multilevel meta-analysis of controlled studies.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Review
- The potential impact of advanced footwear technology on the recent evolution of elite sprint performances.PeerJ · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Limits to athletic performance have long been a topic of myth and debate. However, sport performance appears to have reached a state of stagnation in recent years, suggesting that the physical capabilities of humans and other athletic species, such as greyhounds and thoroughbreds, cannot progress indefinitely. Although the ultimate capabilities may be predictable, the exact path for the absolute maximal performance values remains difficult to assess and relies on technical innovations, sport regulation, and other parameters that depend on current societal and economic conditions. The aim of this literature review was to assess the possible plateau of top physical capabilities in various events and detail the historical backgrounds and sociocultural, anthropometrical, and physiological factors influencing the progress and regression of athletic performance. Time series of performances in Olympic disciplines, such as track and field and swimming events, from 1896 to 2012 reveal a major decrease in performance development. Such a saturation effect is simultaneous in greyhound, thoroughbred, and frog performances. The genetic condition, exhaustion of phenotypic pools, economic context, and the depletion of optimal morphological traits contribute to the observed limitation of physical capabilities. Present conditions prevailing, we approach absolute physical limits and endure a continued period of world record scarcity. Optional scenarios for further improvements will mostly depend on sport technology and modification competition rules.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.