This talk was presented at an official TED conference.

When you look at sporting achievements over the last decades, it seems like humans have gotten faster, better and stronger in nearly every way. Yet as David Epstein points out in this delightfully counter-intuitive talk, we might want to lay off the self-congratulation. Many factors are at play in shattering athletic records, and the development of our natural talents is just one of them.

In this talk Epstein discusses the more mainstream athletic sports such as running and cycling. Around 10:00 minutes however he even mentions a canoe/kayak.

How does this talk apply to paddlesports? For example, was Tony Estanguet really that much faster than Jon Lugbill in the eighties? Or was the evolution of equipment, course (design) and for example rule changes also a determining factor? What do you think?