Can Legal Science Create Champion Athletes?
If 1936 Olympic gold medallist Jesse Owens was to race against Usain Bolt today he would be 14 feet behind the Jamaican. Has the human race evolved so much since then to make sporting feats like this possible? Or is it that we now have a superior understanding of how get the most out of our bodies?
Chasing Perfection, a new two-part documentary series, produced by The Moment in partnership with The Open University for Channel 4, presented by Michael Johnson looks behind modern sporting achievements. The programme delves into what makes a champion by exploring the dramatic impact sports sciences has had on the world of professional sports. The first episode, broadcast last Sunday (15th November), explores how sport technologies has changed immeasurably in the last 20 years and follows the path taken by athletes from birth to the elite start line.
Michael speaks to leading sport’s science journalist David Epstein and meets a unique family who are combining their natural genetic gifts with the latest scientific understanding to improve their performance.
Twins Kevin and Johnathan Borlée with their sister Oliva and brother Dylan all compete on the international athletics stage. All four are trained by their father Jacques, a former Belgian national athlete himself. He has developed a training regime around science but firmly believes that a lot of their success is down to hard work. As twins Kevin and Johnathan give physiologist a vital insight into what role genetics might play in becoming a champion.
Michael also opens the doors to MJP, his performance centre in Dallas, where the programme follows Zidan Miah, a 13 year old boy from London whose dream is to be a professional footballer. Zidan showed such potential that his family moved to the US to find out if the techniques and coaching methods at MJP could help him fulfil his ambition. Zidan’s story also highlights the importance of parental support to help the few become champions.
It is not just able bodied athletes that are benefiting from the developments in sports science. Michael believes Paralympic sport is going to be bigger and bigger in the future. He joins the Brazilian Paralympics team as they prepare for the biggest sporting event of their lives and how the latest technology is having an incredible impact on their sport.
In the second episode Michael will be trying to understand what makes the difference between those who line up on the start line and those who end up on the podium time and time again – The Serial Champions.
He explores the role of the mind in making champions, talking to serial champions including one of the most naturally gifted snooker players of all time, five times world champion, Ronnie O’Sullivan, six times Olympic cycling champion Sir Chris Hoy, and 20 time champion jockey AP McCoy. The programme will also discover how mental strength can allow a rare few athletes to conquer not one sport but multiple sports, like the most successful British female Paralympian of all time, Dame Sarah Storey.
The second part of the two-part documentary, Chasing Perfection, will be broadcast on Sunday 22nd November, 7.05am on Channel 4.
