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Are Athletes Really Getting Faster, Better, Stronger?

NPR

By NPR/TED Staff

Published July 18, 2014 at 8:42 AM EDT

Part 2 of the TED Radio Hour episodeChampions.

About David Epstein's TEDTalk

Humans seem to have gotten faster, better and stronger in almost every way. Yet as sports journalist David Epstein points out, many factors are at play when we shatter athletic records.

About David Epstein

David Epstein writes about the science of sports from performance-enhancing drugs to the lucky genetics that separate the pros from the rest of us. A science writer and longtime contributor to Sports Illustrated, he's helped break stories on steroids in baseball, fraudulently marketed health remedies, and big-money irregularities in "amateur" college football.

Now Epstein is an investigative reporter at ProPublicaand the author ofThe Sports Gene, exploring the complex factors that make up a champion athlete.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

NPR/TED Staff

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