Is There No End to What Humans Can Do？ 人力所及是否没有止境？
James Tapper 詹姆斯·塔珀
Eliud Kipchoge's extraordinary sub-two-hour marathon in Vienna on Saturday is one of the greatest sporting achievements –recording a time that has never been achieved before and pushing the limits of human ability， again. It is a time on the fringes of what scientists believe is humanly possible.
“It is a great feeling to make history in sport after Sir Roger Bannister in 1954，” Kipchoge said afterwards， predicting that others would repeat the feat. “I am the happiest man in the world to be the first human to run under two hours and I can tell people that no human is limited.”
Is he right？ Where are the limits of human ability？ And how close are we to reaching them？
Raph Brandon， head of science for England cricket， distinguishes between feats which are constrained by human anatomy， and those which require human determination or skill.
“When Bolt ran 9.58 in Berlin 10 years ago， if you analyse the split times， it's very hard to imagine where the improvement comes from，” said Brandon， who worked with Team GB through three Olympic games until 2014. “The Usain Bolt 100m or the two-hour marathon， they're in that category.”
Multi-day， ultra-endurance events， such as Thomas's cross-Channel swim， are different， Brandon said.
“They need grit， psychology and bloody-mindedness to go that little bit further. Those people will continue to do unique things because you're not really taking the body to its anatomical limit， it's more a question of how much you're prepared to deplete and fatigue yourself.”
And there's a third category， those sporting endeavours that rely on hand-eye coordination: the goal tallies of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi， the tennis grand slams of Roger Federer and Serena Williams， and the batting of Virat Kohli， Steve Smith or Don Bradman， who trained by hitting a golf ball with a stump against a wall to become the best batsman ever to play Test cricket.
Equipment has been a factor for many sports. NFL receivers wear gloves that enable them to make improbable one-handed catches. Football boots have been designed to help players put exactly the right amount of spin on the ball ever since Adidas launched the Predator boot. The GB cycling team swept the board at the Olympics because of their amazing new clothing tech.
The line between what is fair and unfair is blurry. Kipchoge's sub-two-hour run will not be officially recognised – he still holds the official record of 2:01:39 – because he had so much help. The Kenyan ran behind a car which beamed a green laser on to the ground in front of him. Teams of pacemakers， 41 in total， ran in a V-formation to shield him from headwinds. He wore specially designed shoes and the time and date of the event were picked only after detailed weather forecasting.
Perhaps the final limit is inside athlete's heads. Jo Davies， a sport psychologist， says recent studies have shown athletes can push themselves harder because of their perception of exhaustion.
Other research published this year which looked at super-elite athletes – who had won multiple gold medals – found that they were different in several important ways. They had often had a traumatic life experience and had suffered significant setbacks in their performance during their careers， as well as personality traits of ruthlessness， perseverance and perfectionism.
So whether or not those limits have been reached， there will be no shortage of people prepared to try to go beyond them.
埃利乌德·基普乔盖10月12日在维也纳表现非凡地在两小时内跑完马拉松，这是最伟大的体育成绩之一——创下过去从未取得过的完赛时间纪录，也再次拓展了人类能力极限。这个时长处于科学家认为人类所能达到最好成绩的边缘。
基普乔盖赛后的一番话预言了其他人会重复这一壮举，他说：“继罗杰·班尼斯特爵士1954年之后在体育领域创造历史的感觉太棒了。成为第一个跑进两小时的人让我感觉自己是世界上最幸福的人，我可以告诉大家，人的能力没有极限。”
他说得对吗？人类能力的极限在哪里？我们离这样的极限有多近？
英格兰板球委员会运动科学事务负责人拉夫·布兰登区分了受人体解剖学制约的成就与需要人的决心或技能的成就。
布兰登在2014年以前与英国奥运代表团合作了三届奥运会，他说：“10年前博尔特在柏林跑出9秒58时，如果分析一下分段时间，很难想出成绩的提升源自哪里。尤塞恩·博尔特的百米成绩或者两小时内完成的马拉松，这些同属一类。”
布兰登说，像托马斯游泳横渡英吉利海峡这种耗时多日的超耐力项目则不同。
“他们需要坚韧不拔、心理素质和倔强执拗才能再取得一点点突破。这类人会继续做独一无二的事情，因为你不是真的在让身体达到解剖学上的极限，这更多的是你准备让自己精疲力竭到何种程度的问题。”
还有第三类，是那些依靠手眼协调的体育运动：克里斯蒂亚诺·罗纳尔多和利昂内尔·梅西的破门得分、罗杰·费德勒和塞雷娜·威廉姆斯赢得的网球大满贯以及维拉特·科利、史蒂夫·史密斯或者唐·布拉德曼的击球，布拉德曼用一截木棍对着墙击打高尔夫球来进行训练，成为板球对抗赛史上最佳击球手。
装备向来是影响许多体育运动的一个因素。美国全国橄榄球联盟接球手所戴的手套让他们能够做到看似不大可能的单手接球。自阿迪达斯公司推出“猎鹰”战靴以来，足球鞋的设计一直是为了帮助球员给球带来恰到好处的旋转。英国自行车队因为在着装上采用了令人惊叹的新技术，在奥运会上大获全胜。
公平与不公平之间的界限模糊不清。基普乔盖因得到许多帮助，此次不足两小时的马拉松用时不会得到官方认可——他依旧保持着2小时1分39秒的官方纪录。这名肯尼亚人跟着一辆汽车跑，车上打出一束绿色激光，照在他前方的路面上。总共由41人组成的领跑团队排成V字形奔跑，从而让他免受逆风影响。他穿着专门设计的跑鞋，比赛的时间与日期都是依照详细的天气预报信息选定的。
或许最终的极限存在于运动员的头脑中。运动心理学家乔·戴维斯说，最近的研究表明，运动员会因为感知到疲惫而愈发努力。
今年发表的其他关注超级杰出运动员——曾多次赢得金牌的运动员——的研究结果表明，他们在几个重要方面与众不同。他们往往有过带来创伤的人生经历，并且在职业生涯中的表现曾遭遇重大挫折，此外他们还具有严苛待己、锲而不舍和追求完美的人格特质。
因此，无论极限是否已经达到，都不乏准备尝试着去突破它们的人。（李凤芹译自英国《卫报》网站10月12日文章）