STATISTICS FOR EXCEPTIONAL ATHLETICS RECORDS

Extreme records in athletics are increasingly questioned as being due to the use of performance enhancing drugs. To assess such performances , statistical methods are developed that are based on extreme value te chniques for estimating the ultimate performance possible by the curre nt population of competing athletes. These methods are applied to the analysis of data from the women's 3000 m track event, where we find th at a recently broken record shows signs of being inconsistent with pre vious performances.