We've taken six of the world's top athletes,
to find out what it takes to make a true Olympian...
That's it, come on!
..as we push their bodies to the max.
(ANATOMY OF A STEEPLECHASER)
In the track and field programme,
the 3,000-metres steeplechase
really is one of those brutal events.
Classically when you look at elite athletes
they make it look easy.
But the ability to sustain these very high speeds
whilst negotiating these very large barriers
is an incredibly difficult thing to do and requires
a huge amount of speed and aerobic endurance
to be successful.
Soufiane El Bakkali
is Morocco's leading steeplechaser.
At just 20 years old, he not only made the final
at the Olympic Games Rio 2016 at his first attempt,
he also placed a remarkable fourth.
We've brought Soufiane,
to the Manchester Institute of Health and Performance,
a cutting-edge facility
dedicated to exploring and developing some
of sport's most elite talents.
The typical body shape of a 3,000-metres steeplechaser
is very similar to that of an endurance runner.
Invariably they are light and they're very
low in percent body fat.
Within steeplechase we can often see short athletes.
Equally we can see very tall athletes, because it is also
about the ability to negotiate barriers
as well as run fast for 3,000 metres.
To succeed at the highest level,
Soufiane needs both supreme endurance
as well as excellent agility.
The stats show he is one of the tallest men in his sport,
but what are those vital anatomical advantages
he needs to push him to the top of the podium?
I get my physical strength from God.
The real strength comes from the mind.
When you are strong mentally, everything becomes easy.
On the surface at least,
Soufiane looks lean and streamlined.
But the Dexa scan will literally go under
the skin of his body composition
and show just how much more
there is this to this super-slim athlete.
From the Dexa score, what we saw
is a body fat percentage of 10.7%.
That is exceptionally low,
and in fact is one of the lowest I have ever seen.
Elite track cyclists typically
have a body fat percentage of just 12.3,
while top triathletes are some of the leanest performers
in sport at 8.6.
Soufiane's 10.7% shows just how little fat
or non-functional mass he's carrying in competition.
If you were looking to design the ultimate body type
for an elite 3,000-metres steeplechaser,
Soufiane would be exactly what you're looking for.
The fact that I'm tall
helps me to clear the obstacles in a race.
And I think this ability helps me to compete
against the Kenyan runners.
(ENVIRO)
Of course, Soufiane is from Morocco and he does a lot of
his training at altitude, in the Atlas Mountains.
So therefore, taking him into the environmental chamber
and replicating that environment
is a really important thing to do to see how
he copes when he is running.
At high altitude the body produces more haemoglobin,
which increases oxygen-carrying capacity to the muscles,
crucial to improve aerobic activity
and achieve peak performance.
Up into that faster pace now!
Inside the enviro chamber,
we have simulated the same conditions
Soufiane would experience in the high altitude
training camp that Morocco uses
for its elite endurance athletes.
Well done. Get into that stride! Well done!
For each steady-state effort, Soufiane has to perform
a high-tempo interval,
replicating the fast pace of the closing stages of a race.
Excellent! Excellent!
For over 30 years, the men's steeplechase
has been dominated by one nation - Kenya,
with the last nine gold medals
going to athletes from this country.
Many experts believe
that living and training in the Rift Valley,
at an altitude of 2,000 metres plus,
has given Kenya's elite performers
a key anatomical edge.
Drive on!
Well done. Drive on!
Final big effort!
Big push here! Keep pushing!
Keep pushing. Come on. Really pushing hard now.
Drive. As much as you can! Keep going. Final few seconds!
Keep it going. Brilliant work!
There we go! We'll bring you down.
Excellent work. That was great, Soufiane.
The results from the environmental chamber
are very interesting because
they confirm what we already know about Soufiane.
Despite the high temperatures, despite the altitude,
Soufiane is able to maintain
his pace across the multiple intervals,
really demonstrating one of the key factors
in his success, and that is running economy.
(DYNO)
We use the dynamometer test for two key reasons.
One is to look at performance. The second reason
is for injury surveillance and rehabilitation.
We're looking at the relationship
between the left leg and the right leg,
because both of those predict injury
and also monitor the recovery from injury.
For any runner, the leg muscles are what deliver performance
but are also the most vulnerable areas to injury.
The dyno will measure the relative strength
of Soufiane's hamstrings and quadriceps
and show how able he is to withstand the stresses
of steeplechase at the elite level.
Go! Good, good, push, push, push, pull, pull, pull!
Push, push, push. Pull! All the way back in!
And relax.
Steeplechase has one of the highest injury rates
of any track and field event,
as barriers are hurdled repeatedly at speed
and during moments of extreme fatigue.
Strong quadriceps are vital to provide stability
to the knee and absorb the force of landing.
Go! Kick, kick. Well done. Push, push, pull, pull.
Good push. Go on. Push, push. Hard, hard, come on.
Pull as well.
Good. And relax!
Brilliant. Fantastic. Well done there!
Soufiane's results tell us that he has symmetry. The force that
he can produce in terms of the quadriceps on left
and right side is very, very similar.
Now, that's what we expect to see from
an elite steeplechase runner,
but, importantly for Soufiane,
is what it shows is a low potential for injury.
(UP CLOSE)
The 3,000-metres steeplechase is really special to me.
Despite its challenges, I really love it.
Even as a teenager,
I was really obsessed with this event.
They say the losses make you stronger
and since I was a kid
I have been determined to reach the top of this sport.
In the final, I remember entering the stadium
and seeing all the Brazilian spectators.
I remember the noise of the crowd and I felt nervous about
how the other competitors were going to perform against me.
At the start of the race, I was probably too
focused on the other athletes.
But after a few laps, I started to relax.
My main threats were
the Kenyans, the French, the Ethiopians
and the other Moroccan runner.
But by the middle of the race I had overcome my fear
and started to focus on the finish line.
(VO2 MAX)
So, this test enables us to look at key factors
of endurance running performance.
Firstly, anaerobic threshold,
which is indicative of the point
at which blood lactate starts to rise,
which will lead eventually to fatigue.
The second area is running economy,
and that is Soufiane's ability to run at a given speed
for the lowest energy possible.
An elite steeplechase runner has to have a vital blend
of physical endurance and technical efficiency to power
him over 35 nearly one-metre-high barriers
and across a 3.5-metre water pit,
all over a 3,000-metre distance.
Three, two, one, off you go!
In competition, Soufiane has to maintain a race pace
that most non-elite athletes couldn't sustain
for more than a few hundred metres,
let alone seven and half laps of an Olympic track.
On you go!
Keep those legs turning. Excellent work!
Keep pushing, Soufiane!
Not only does an Olympic steeplechaser need
to be able to endure, he has to be able
to alter his stride pattern at speed to ensure he meets
the barriers on the correct foot, to clear them
and maintain the most efficient running rhythm.
Keep it going, Soufiane! Come on, push! Keep going!
Making the perfect competitor
part distance runner, part hurdler and part long-jumper.
Push! Push! Push!
As hard as you can.
Three, two, one, step off the treadmill.
Excellent! Well done, Soufiane!
Fantastic! Excellent effort! Are you OK?
OK.
Soufiane has an anaerobic threshold
that occurs at 18km/h.
To put that into context, that is the speed at which Soufiane
will execute a steady-state run.
We can estimate his VO2 max is going to be somewhere
in the region of the late 70s or early 80s
millilitres per kilogram per minute.
Running economy results for Soufiane were outstanding.
In other words, what he is able to do is run at a given speed
for a lower energy cost.
That means he can save energy, which becomes valuable
when it comes to getting over those massive barriers
in the final laps of the race.
(CRYO)
Cryotherapy exposes the body to extremely cold temperatures
to help reduce muscle inflammation and soreness
and is used by some elite athletes after competition
or periods of intense training.
Soufiane has never used this recovery method before.
Will he be up to the challenge?
He is from Morocco, a hot country,
he is incredibly lean, with a very low percent body fat,
so it's really going to be interesting to see
how he actually copes with these really cold temperatures.
Go into the pod and then face me, OK?
Off you go.
The traditional athlete's ice bath
measures a cool 12 degrees C but it doesn't even come close
to what Soufiane is about to endure.
The full-body air-cooled cryotherapy pod
is set to a bone-chilling minus-120 degrees C,
colder than the record low ever recorded in Antarctica.
- You OK? - Yes.
- Are you sure? - Yes.
Keep going!
Soufiane has to stay in the pod for two and a half minutes
to gain the optimal effect.
It may be the toughest task he's faced all day.
Eight, seven...
You all right? Go!
How was that?
Well done! Excellent!
Soufiane is a really lean athlete, only 10.7% body fat.
He's got virtually no insulation whatsoever.
So it really isn't unsurprising
to see what a challenge he found that.
Soufiane is one of steeplechasing's true outliers,
literally head and shoulders above many
of his fellow competitors.
Good! Good! Good! Push, push, push!
His remarkable endurance and aerobic efficiency
have put him among the truly elite
in one of the Olympics' most testing disciplines.
Well done, drive on!
At just 21, he is still years away from his prime.
Could Tokyo 2020 be his time?
From this experience I have learned that
I really have to work hard through consistent
training in order to raise the level of my performance.
The testing was nothing like I expected
and it was really interesting to see
how my body reacted to it.
I've never been pushed like this before,
so it was a fascinating day.
He has wonderful balance and symmetry
between left and right leg,
fantastic anaerobic threshold at 18km/h,
but his running economy was truly exceptional
and I think that really demonstrates
why he is one of the best of the best.