Humans have peaked, says study

Olympic athletes compete under the motto “Faster, Higher, Stronger,” but a new study examining athletic performance, height and life expectancy during the past 120 years concludes the motto has become a pipe dream.

The human race has peaked, and the days of regularly smashed world records have ended, the researchers say; a more reasonable, if less inspiring, goal for 21st century athletes would be “No Slower, No Lower, No Weaker.”

The research team from France used historical records to conclude that humans appear to have reached maximum biological limits for height, age and physical ability.

“These traits no longer increase, despite further continuous nutritional, medical, and scientific progress,” co-author Jean-François Toussaint of Paris Descartes University said in a news release. “This suggests that modern societies have allowed our species to reach its limits. We are the first generation to become aware of this.”

The study, published this week in the journal Frontiers in Physiology, documents the remarkable advances made by Olympic athletes in a variety of sports.

But more recent data suggest “a trend toward a plateau during the last three decades for both sexes,” they say.

The authors suggest that the main medical improvements capable of extending life expectancy have been achieved, and predictions of some scientists that it will continue to increase are unfounded.