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07:35 - XC at the Winter Games?

17:40 - UK Athletics and the cost of FACT

22:35 - Mediocre Male Beats Strong Women

29:55 - Do Guardian Caps work?

39:55 - And Finally - Fine margins in sport & 2 day tests

Show notes

Today on Spotlight, a news show that begins with a brief look at our recent interview with Travis Tygart, the USADA CEO. Gareth raises an interesting question about USADA's partnership with its athletes and perceived impartiality, and Ross reflects on some of Tygart's strong views.

Sebastian Coe is trying to get Cross Country running into the Winter Olympics. It's not on snow or ice, so the Winter Games family are not all that enthusiastic. It would bring new nations to the medal table, but where should the Games draw the line at expansion?

Then it's on to some news from the always controversial world of sex in sport. UK Athletics have encouraged all their female athletes to get the SRY screen done to ensure eligibility for women's sport. A good step, but one that comes at a financial cost to the athlete.

it's a cost that many would consider worth incurring to protect women's sport, as demonstrated by this week's controversial victory, and then disqualification, of a male in the World's Strongest Woman event in Texas. We pick up on some views expressed by listeners to discuss the relevance of this story, and how Official Strongman, the organization in charge, reacted swiftly and decisively to correct the wrong.

Onto the NFL next, for a brief chat about Guardian caps. Promoted as reducing concussion risk by 50%, these soft-shell devices don't appear to have a plausible mechanism by which work, based on recent published research. This leads us to talk about the dilemma faced by sports authorities, who often throw everything they think works at the problem, but can't do robust, quality science to know what might, or might not, be working

And finally, we speak about the tiny margins between success and failure, sliding doors moments in sport, and take a brief look at why Test cricket just isn't what it used to be!

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Travis T. Tygart is one of the most outspoken and controversial figures in anti-doping. As the Chief Executive Officer of USADA (the United States Anti-Doping Agency), Tygart has played a significant role in bringing athletes like Lance Armstrong to book, worked alongside federal authorities to investigate the international steroid bust during Operation Raw Deal and uncovered the international doping conspiracy involving the BALCO laboratory in San Francisco. Tygart also led the investigation into the U.S. Postal Service pro-cycling team doping conspiracy and spearheaded the publication of the Reasoned Decision in the Armstrong case. Tygart has also led the international effort to advocate for justice and reform in the aftermath of the Russian state-sponsored doping scheme. Tygart has worked for USADA for over 22 years, and his ongoing war of words with WADA (the World Anti-Doping Agency) has frequently been reported in international media.

In this wide-ranging interview, Tygart breaks down USADA's role in policing doping offenders in the United States and around the world, and explains how the US anti-doping system works and differs from those of other countries. Tygart also explains how the passing of the US's Rodchenkov Act - which grants broader powers to anti-doping officials - has been a game-changer, how doping investigations are handled, why WADA is not doing enough to fight the good fight and why it also needs to re-examine the levels at which some drugs are measured to ensure that innocent athletes are not caught up in the net.

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In this Spotlight, we pick out some of the sports science topics that our listeners are sharing in our Discourse community.

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(00:00) We begin with a look at some of the reaction to our most recent podcast on Endurance, and the Central Governor. Listener reaction and accounts of their experiences stimulate conversations about the hostilities and fights in academia, the difference between "belief" and "knowledge", failures of pacing leading to heat stroke, and how to recover from a pacing mistake when it happens in your races and training. We also learn about how physiology, for many years, views performance through a 'failure' lens, rather than regulation, and what this means for how we understand training and performance.

(46:09) A new research study has again confirmed that high carbohydrate intake is the way to go, improving our running economy and unlocking potential performance gains similar to those of super shoes. We link pacing and regulation to this paper by pointing out that carbohydrates are not working by delaying fuel depletion, or sparing carbohydrates, but rather changing exercise intensity and our ability to run higher paces for longer.

(57:53) Our Supporters Club have also been sharing thoughts about the challenge of endurance sports in the heat, which affects not only body temperature, but also fuel use (more carbs) and compromises carbohydrate delivery to the muscles. A triple challenge, confirmed by a new study that shows that we tolerate and extract fewer carbs in the heat.

And Finally (1:03:15), Ross is planning his own heat challenges, having entered a mountain bike race in the peak of South Africa's summer. With temperatures expected to soar above 40C, heat adaptation and fuelling will be tested, and he discusses his general approach and promises to share more in the coming weeks!

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