Ross Tucker – The Science of Sport

So the Court of Arbitration for Sport have released their full decision in the Caster Semenya-IAAF case. You can read all 632 points of it here, and then evaluate the arguments offered by both sides in your own time! It is, as we all know, an incredibly complex case, made ... read more

About 6 weeks ago, we launched The Science of Sport Podcast, and today’s short thought is just a push towards that and a brief overview of what we are about. “We” is Mike Finch and me. Mike is a journalist, editor of the SA Runners World and Bicycling magazines for ... read more

This is a guest post, sort of. Well, it’s a post that was co-authored by myself, along with two other academics – Roger Pielke Jr from the USA and Erik Boye of Norway. You may recall that last year, about this time actually, the three of us tried to look ... read more

Prepare for a long read. Do it in instalments if it helps! I’ve written it as a list, I don’t know if that helps or hinders. But these are my thoughts, start to finish, on the DSD in sport issue, as pertains to Caster Semenya and others, and the CAS ... read more

I want to try to explain the conceptual problem for the integrity of runing performance because of the potential of a shoe to enhance performance by upwards of 2%. Let me try to do this by asking you to consider the following two statements, A and B. What you need ... read more

It’s the London Marathon this week. It will almost certainly be won by an athlete from east Africa. In both the men’s and women’s races. After all, it’s been 16 years since a non-east African won the men’s race, and nine years on the women’s side. Other major big city ... read more

So Asbel Kiprop was handed a four-year ban over the weekend, for his EPO-positive from November 2017. I shared a few thoughts on it over the Easter Weekend, but wanted to expand them a little here in my latest #shortthoughtonsport. If you’re interested, you can read the entire Final Decision ... read more

I’m back with a short thought on sport! Turns out these haven’t always been short enough to allow me to do them as often as I’d have liked, apologies. But let’s see how this one goes! So Asbel Kiprop is due to hear his fate any day now. On March ... read more

It’s been a while since I did a four-bullet Friday – too much travel, too many court cases and meetings! But here goes, four quick-fire thoughts to usher in the weekend! Top 1. World X-Country Championships and the IAAF’s uneasy relationship with distance events Something I missed ... read more

Ok, here goes. I’ve been meaning to write this for a while, but time and energy have not allowed it. But I’ve just been involved in some lively Twitter discussions, ultimately productive, so I’m going to try to share some thoughts around this issue of transgender females (male-to-female transitioning people) ... read more