A report on NPR this morning, that I'm listening to as I type this, says that physiologists are starting to realize that the performance/endurance decrease that comes with age may not be as real as once thought.

Stated another way, most people have believed for a long time that the human body's atheltic ability peaks in the late teens and early twenties, and then starts to fade out. Consider the American Olympians: twenty years ago, the average age of the team was 21.

The report said that Physiologists are finding that this performance peak and subsequent decline may have been socially engineered: after training for years to reach the Olympics, most athletes then needed to start a "real life"... the Olympics didn't allow paid athletes to compete, so there were very few who could manage to start a family, manage a career, and still continue the training process necessary to stay in the best physical condition.

This year, the average age of the American Olympic team is 29 (or 28, not sure which they said). Professional ("paid") athletes are now allowed to compete, so more of the athletes have been able to make their sports into their careers, through paid competitions and endorsements.

Noone is claiming that age is an advantage in endiurance-related sports, but they are starting to claim that it may not be the disadvantage we all once imagined.

I'm in my mid-to-late twenties (not sure where "almost 28" fits in there), and I'm actually below the average age of an American Olympian... yet some friends and family told me this year, repeatedly, that I shouldn't expect to achieve the same cycling performance that I had when I was 21. I'm glad I didn't listen, as I'm doing as well now as I ever did, and I'm still improving. I may not be an Olympian, but in the race against my own body, I seem to be pulling ahead.

I've been visiting Brian Carnell's site on a regular basis lately, so I decided it was time to make it one of my "favorite sites".

I've learned a lot from reading his other sites (see the links in the margin of that site), and so reading his personal site offers some insight into the man behind the myth. ;-).