Abstract

ZENNER DE POLANIA, Ingeborg. OLYMPIC RECORDS: HUMAN VS INSECTS. rev.udcaactual.divulg.cient. [online]. 2012, vol.15, suppl.1, pp.37-45. ISSN 0123-4226.

Based on observations, measurements and literature on the sport abilities of insects within the three recognized categories of the Olympic Summer Games, athletics, gymnastics and swimming, some sporting marks, recently established by men and women, are compared with those, which specific insects sustain since millions of years. If these arthropods would compete with athletes , they would gain all competences, in which their characteristics would permit their participation, in both world and Olympic Game. In weight lifting, within any category, dung beetles and ants would compete, winning the gold medals the first group, to which the sacred dung beetles of the ancient Egyptians belong. They will be challenged by the rhinoceros beetle, Dynastes hercules, emblematic scarab of the South-American rainforests, including Colombia. The aquatic bugs of the families Notonectidae and Corixidae are swimmers by excellence of both styles, back and breast and, it is not the flea which sustains the world record of high and large jumps, but a spittlebug or froghopper (Cercopidae), an insect pest of alfalfa. Equally, and as it happens during the Olympic Games, where somebody takes a record away from an athlete, an other insect beats the score of the American cockroach as fastest runner. Fortunately, humans do not compete in games with insects, but do so, although with limited extent, with some of them for food.

Keywords : Sport competence; summer Olympic Games; scores; cockroach; flea.

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