Elite athletes have a lot at stake when it comes to their training. Many of them are professional athletes, meaning that they make their living from competing. The fact is that the outcome of an experiment is not clear from the beginning. So, if athletes agree to take part in an experiment that changes their method of training, they have no idea what the experimental training method will do to their level of performance. Maybe the new method will not change their performance, maybe it will improve performance, but maybe it will actually decrease performance. So, there is always a risk for the athlete. Also, for scientific experiments to be valid, they need to be standardized and controlled in many ways, meaning that athletes in an experiment might have to change their diets or daily activities, and they might not want to do that, because it could interfere with their training. This becomes more difficult the longer the training experiment lasts.

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