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THE jack of all trades really is a master of none, at least when it comes to
sport. In a study of world-class decathletes, biologists have confirmed that a
flair for certain sporting events undermines your abilities in other
competitions.

Biologists have long argued that physiological trade-offs affect animals鈥�
physical abilities. For instance, speedy animals rely on fast, very elastic
muscle, but endurance depends on slower fibres that are more resistant to
fatigue. 鈥淭he cheetah is the fastest land animal, but it also has a very poor
ability to sustain locomotion over long distances,鈥� points out Robbie Wilson of
the University of Antwerp in Belgium.

Evidence for these trade-offs has been largely anecdotal, however. To find
out if they also affect people, Wilson and his team analysed scores for 600
decathletes, who compete in 10 gruelling events over two days.

Wilson was initially surprised to find that, overall, individuals who
performed well in one event were likely to perform well in all the others. But
he suspected this might be because some of the decathletes were more talented
generally.

So his team compared competitors with the best overall scores. Sure enough,
the elite decathletes did reveal trade-offs. Those with excellent times in the
100-metres sprint did well in the long jump, 400 metres and 110-metres hurdles,
but scored relatively poorly in the 1500-metre race, which requires endurance in
the legs. Likewise, ace shot-putters, who need explosive power in the upper
limbs, did significantly worse in the 1500 metres.

It鈥檚 possible that the difference reflects biases in training. But Wilson
says the consistency of the results suggests it really is more difficult to
excel in certain pairs of events than in others.