Ancient athletes knew performance-enhancing tricks

Long before modern-day athletes started taking drugs to enhance their performance, ancient Greeks had a trick or two up their sleeve to maximise their chances of winning.

As far back as the 18th ancient Olympiad in 708 BC they were using hand-held stone or lead weights in the standing long jump event to improve on their natural ability.

If the weights were swung correctly and at precisely the right time during the jump, scientists at Manchester Metropolitan University in England calculated that the weights, known as halteres, could add at least 17 cm (seven inches) to a three-metre (yard) jump.

"This could be considered the first passive tool that was invented to enhance motion and locomotion," said Professor Alberto Minetti of the university's department of exercise and sport science.

But unlike performance-enhancing drugs, halteres were legal.

"It was a way to better use the existing muscle. It is not like doping. It is a product of ingenuity, not fraud," Minetti told Reuters.

The stone devices, which ranged in weight from two to nine kg (4-20 lbs), came in a variety of shapes, with and without handles. Ancient vase paintings depict athletes using them during competitions.

They were swung back and forth just before the athlete took off, thrust forward during the jump and then back before the landing for maximum effect.

Using a computer model and taking into account elements such as the elasticity of tendons and ligaments as well as real life simulations, Minetti and his colleague Luca Ardigo calculated the take-off speed was two percent greater using a pair of halteres with a total weight of about six kg (13 lbs).

But overall performance would begin to decline when the weight exceeded 10-12 kilos (22-26 lbs), according to the research published in the science journal Nature.

Judging by the size of archaeological specimens of halteres, Minetti said the ancient Greeks had already worked it all out for themselves and knew exactly what they were doing.