Schippers: 1980s world records defy logic... we cannot
DUTCH sprinter Dafne Schippers has backed European Athletics’ proposal to rewrite all world records set before 2005 and also questioned the legitimacy of times set in the 1980s. Schippers, who clocked the third fastest 200 metres in history when she claimed gold at the 2015 Beijing World Championships in 21.63 seconds, yesterday gave her backing to the proposal during an interview with Sportsmail. Should the changes be passed by athletics’ IAAF world governing body in August, Schippers would become the world record-holder in the women’s 200m. Only Florence Griffith Joyner, who set the world record of 21.34 in 1988, and Marion Jones, who ran 21.62 in 1998, have run faster than the 24-year-old’s 2015 time. Schippers believes the results of decades gone by defy logic, claiming that performances should have improved with modern training methods and natural sporting evolution. The Dutch athlete, who lines up against double Olympic champion Elaine Thompson of Jamaica over 200 metres at the Diamond League meeting in Doha, Qatar, on Friday, told
‘The difficult thing is that everyone knows that the 1980s are not the best years in track and field yet most of the world records are from the 1980s. I think it’s really good if we can skip that period and have a cleaner sport. Some of those world records — they are just too difficult to run for that period. I think there were 12 or 13 world records in the 1980s. That’s a lot. ‘Normally you think that the tracks are faster now, the footwear is better, the athletes are better. We hope we are better now than back then.’ Joyner’s 200m record was blighted by allegations of drug abuse and she died at the age of 38. She always denied the accusations and never failed a
drugs test. However, her physical appearance altered considerably before the 1988 Seoul Olympics. And in his autobiography American athlete Carl Lewis, who won nine Olympic gold medals, wrote: ‘Her physical appearance alone, muscles popping everywhere, made a lot of people wonder. Then there was the voice, much deeper than it had been.’