Glimpsing the Impossible: How Artificially Enhanced Targets Improve Elite Performance

Area of Science:

• Sports Science
• Performance Psychology
• Biomechanics

Background:

• Polyurethane "supersuits" in elite swimming (2009) led to rapid, artificial performance enhancements.
• These suits facilitated 43 world records before being banned in 2010, creating a unique natural experiment.
• The ban provided an opportunity to study the long-term impact of artificially inflated performance benchmarks.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effect of transient, artificially enhanced performances on subsequent athletic achievements.
• To examine how "impossible" performance targets influence future results in elite sports.
• To contribute to psychological goal-setting theory by analyzing the relationship between goal difficulty and performance.

Main Methods:

• Comparative analysis of swimming speeds in global championships before (2000-2007) and after (2011-2017) the supersuit era.
• Statistical examination of performance trajectories to identify deviations caused by the supersuit period.
• Assessment of the relationship between the magnitude of artificial performance enhancement (goal difficulty) and subsequent performance improvements.

Main Results:

• Post-supersuit swimming speeds were significantly faster than predicted based on pre-supersuit trends (d = 0.64; 0.70%).
• The artificial performance spike from the supersuit era recalibrated targets upward, acting as effective goals.
• The relationship between the size of the artificial improvement (goal difficulty) and subsequent performance was curvilinear, with diminishing returns as targets plateaued.

Conclusions:

• Elite athletes can surpass previously perceived human limits when performance expectations are recalibrated upward.
• The study demonstrates the powerful psychological effect of setting ambitious, even artificially derived, performance targets.
• Goal-setting theory is supported, highlighting that challenging goals, even those temporarily achieved through external aids, can lead to sustained performance increases.