Incredible video shows how drastically gymnastics skills have evolved over the decades
Wow, how things have changed.
An MTV News video shows how much gymnastics has evolved over the decades.
In 1952, a 25-year-old medical student did what people had said was impossible. Roger Bannister made history when he ran a mile in under four minutes, shifting the sports world and challenging our ideas about the limits of athletic performance.
Since then, countless records have been set in every sport people play. We keep getting better and better, and just when we think someone has surely reached the pinnacle, someone else comes along to push the limit even further.
One sporting event where such constant improvement is made crystal clear is gymnastics. I remember how enthralled we all were with Mary Lou Retton's perfect 10 vaults when I was a kid, and now they look fairly basic. (Not to take anything away from her—at the time it was truly amazing, and she did execute them flawlessly.)
A video showing how much competitive gymnastics has evolved has gone viral on Twitter. The timing it claims is incorrect, however; it says it shows "100 years different in athletic ability," from 1912 to 2012, but the videos from the past are clearly from the 1940s or '50s.
The fact that the sport has evolved so much in an even shorter period of time is more impressive, actually, as an MTV News video shows. Check this out:
Granted, Simone Biles pushed the sport even further than it had already gone, but that's really the point. Someone will come along in a year or five and blow Simone Biles off the mat. Even the best of the best get bested eventually. It's just the way it goes.
But why? Have human bodies really changed that much in a few generations? And why is record-breaking usually done in such dramatically small increments? Rarely do we see someone come along and completely obliterate a previous time or previous feat. It's usually just a tiny bit better, a tiny bit faster, a tiny bit more precise—just enough to break the record, but not push much further. Over and over and over.
We should give record-breakers the credit they're due, but the evolution of athletic performance is not all about individuals and what they can do. So much about sports has improved over time, from the apparatuses athletes use to the training methods they employ to the nutrition they consume. The mats, fields, tracks, and so on, are not the same today as they were decades ago.
Additionally, peak performance has become an entire multifaceted industry and field of study, and what we know about how to optimize ability keeps expanding.
At some point, though, we have to actually hit our physical limits, don't we? Or do we? Will humans be able to run a 1-minute mile in 300 years? Will all of the elements that affect athletic performance be honed and trained such that we'll be able to do the impossible-for-now?
According to Scientific American, we may be getting closer to plateauing at our human limits, as record-breaking appears to be slowing in pace. And, of course, as biotechnology evolves, we have to wonder what parameters we even put on what "counts" when it comes to achievement. Performance-enhancing drugs have already created conundrums in competitive sports; how much more will genetic tinkering and the like?
All questions we don't have answers for, but it is fun to imagine what humans will be able to do in another 50 or 100 years, isn't it?
"Now your fishes will be warmed."
"To have one’s eyes lined with ham."
"To lay your head in water."
"Repetition teaches the donkey."
"I only understand train station."
"To speak directly from the liver."
"Horse horse, tiger tiger."
Beaver in water. Photo by 
An actual beaver dam on the now-thriving Price River
Medusa image of giant squid in Gulf of Mexico off of Mississippi Gulf CoastPhoto credit: 
Sign warning against feeding alligators next to alligator in Mississippi marshlandsCourtesy of Jacalyn Wetzel
Mississippi Gulf Coast beach in BiloxiCourtesy of Jacalyn Wetzel
2009 photo of giant squid caught in Gulf of Mexico near Mississippi GulfPhoto credit: 
Thank goodness this story has a happy ending.
There's a reason why some people can perfectly copy accents, and others can't
Turns out, there's a neurodivergent link.
A woman in black long sleeve shirt stands in front of mirror.
Have you ever had that friend who goes on vacation for four days to London and comes back with a full-on Queen's English posh accent? "Oooh I left my brolly in the loo," they say, and you respond, "But you're from Colorado!" Well, there are reasons they (and many of us) do that, and usually it's on a pretty subconscious level.
It's called "accent mirroring," and it's actually quite common with people who are neurodivergent, particularly those with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). According Neurolaunch, the self-described "Free Mental Health Library," "Accent mirroring, also known as accent adaptation or phonetic convergence, is the tendency to unconsciously adopt the accent or speech patterns of those around us. This linguistic chameleon effect is not unique to individuals with ADHD, but it appears to be more pronounced and frequent in this population."
Essentially, when people have conversations, we're constantly "scanning" for information—not just the words we're absorbing, but the inflection and tone. "When we hear an accent, our brains automatically analyze and categorize the phonetic features, prosody, and intonation patterns," writes Neurolaunch. For most, this does result in copying the accent of the person with whom we're speaking. But those with ADHD might be more sensitive to auditory cues. This, "coupled with a reduced ability to filter out or inhibit the impulse to mimic…could potentially explain the increased tendency for accent mirroring."
While the article explains further research is needed, they distinctly state that, "Accent mirroring in individuals with ADHD often manifests as an unconscious mimicry of accents in social situations. This can range from subtle shifts in pronunciation to more noticeable changes in intonation and speech rhythm. For example, a person with ADHD might find themselves unconsciously adopting a Southern drawl when conversing with someone from Texas, even if they’ve never lived in the South themselves."
People are having their say online. On the subreddit r/ADHDWomen, a thread began: "Taking on accents is an ADHD thing?" The OP shares, "My whole life, I've picked up accents. I, myself, never noticed, but everyone around me would be like, 'Why are you talking like that??' It could be after I watched a show or movie with an accent or after I've traveled somewhere with a different accent than my 'normal.'
They continue, "Apparently, I pick it up fast, but it fades out slowly. Today... I'm scrolling Instagram, I watch a reel from a comedian couple (Darcy and Jeremy. IYKYK) about how Darcy (ADHD) picks up accents everywhere they go. It's called ADHD Mirroring??? And it's another way of masking."
(The OP is referring to Darcy Michaels and his husband Jeremy Baer, who are both touring comedians based in Canada.)
Hundreds of people on the Reddit thread alone seem to relate. One comments, "Omfg I've done this my whole life; I'll even pick up on the pauses/spaces when I'm talking to someone who is ESL—but English is my first language lol."
Sometimes, it can be a real issue for those around the chameleon. "I accidentally mimicked a waitress's weird laugh one time. As soon as she was out of earshot, my family started to reprimand me, but I was already like 'oh my god I don’t know why I did that, I feel so bad.'"
Many commenters on TikTok were shocked to find out this can be a sign of ADHD. One jokes, "Omg, yes, at a store the cashier was talking to me and she was French. She's like 'Oh are you French too? No, I'm not lol. I'm very east coast Canada."
And some people just embrace it and make it work for them. "I mirror their words or phrase! I’m 30. I realized I start calling everyone sweetie cause my manager does & I work at coffee shop."