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The classic case I always hear is jockeys too. It's not that odd, every sport is getting very specialized in athlete selection, in fact there's a great TED by D
by wldcordeiro 10y ago
The classic case I always hear is jockeys too. It's not that odd, every sport is getting very specialized in athlete selection, in fact there's a great TED by David Epstein[0] talk about this kind of thing.
[0] https://www.ted.com/talks/david_epstein_are_athletes_really_getting_faster_better_stronger?language=en https://www.ted.com/talks/david_epstein_are_athletes_really_...
- mitchty 10y agoGymnasts as well have similar size limitations in some cases. I know my one friend growing up was pretty much devastated when she grew to 5'8" (~170cm if my head conversion is close) She said that being too tall made the balance beam harder as you had more chance to hit your head. I think been a while so anyone can correct me.
- WalterBright 10y agoThe taller you are, the much much harder it gets to rotate the body end over end.
- wldcordeiro 10y agoI'm not even that tall and I learned that growing up, learning just how to do a front flip on a trampoline was tough being a "lerpy" kid.
- xxs 10y agoMore like 172... another issue are the longer limbs that require more strenght to balance the body
- jessaustin 10y agoJockeys are an interesting example, because women compete successfully alongside men, at very high levels. In that sense horse racing is among the least sexist of professional sports.
- thrownblown 10y agoBritish Olympic medal winning cyclist Victoria Pendelton is now competing as a jockey. At London 2012's Olympics she set a world record in the Team Sprint, got silver in the Match Sprint and gold in Keirin. The irony here is that Olympic Keirin is derived from a Japanese/Korean betting sport, which is basically horse racing. But with people.