Meant to be broken: New records set at Beijing 2022

Evolution is the natural state of the universe, woven into its fabric. The world in which we live is constantly progressing, morphing and slowly shifting into new paradigms and states of being.

From the Stone Age to the Bronze Age, to the Iron Age, to the Industrial Revolution and into the Information Age of today, new barriers are continually being set and reset – broken, solidified and shattered again.

Humans are constantly redefining and reestablishing the standards of greatness our predecessors have set.

In sport, benchmarks are set and surpassed over time as well. World records and Olympic bests serve as a lofty goal for all of the world's top competitors, a holy grail of each sport, the ultimate achievement for all in the field.

Yet, as the saying goes, records are meant to be broken.

This time in Beijing, that has indeed occurred on several occasions. Olympic and world bests have been eclipsed by precocious young athletes who have no regard for limits to their boundless potential.

Kaishu Hirano, a snowboarder from Japan, soared higher than any in his sport had ever before. The 19-year-old broke the world record for height in the halfpipe event by ascending to 24 feet and 4 inches above ground level.

Adding the 22-foot depth of the halfpipe itself, Hirano flew over 44 feet above the snowy surface below. He was unfortunately unable to parlay the momentum from this record-breaking accomplishment into a spot atop the medal podium, but his future is undoubtedly bright as he continues to forge his future in the realm of his sport.

Sometimes, a record-breaker seeks only to better their own mark. Instead of replacing a forerunner's name in sporting annals, these superstars can only scrub their previous numbers from the books and replace them with a new standard for greatness.

Dutch speed skater Suzanne Schulting won Olympic gold in the women's 1,000-meter short track event at the 2018 Winter Games. This time, she repeated that feat whilst simultaneously setting a new world record in the quarterfinals of the event with a time of 1:26.514.

Not to be outdone, Swedish speed skater Nils van der Poel broke the world record that he himself had previously possessed by skating the 10,000-meter men's event in a time of 12:30.74, besting his previous mark by more than two full seconds.

Figure skaters on the ice rink also posted record-breaking performances in Beijing. The Chinese duo of Sui Wenjing and Han Cong scored a world-record-breaking 84.41 points in the short-program event, earning them the gold medal in the process. They earned a silver medal at the Olympics in Pyeongchang in 2018, but they were able to alchemize it into the top prize this time around.

American figure skater Nathan Chen performed a similar feat, also setting a new bar with his short program solo performance, breaking the previous world record with a score of 113.97. He earned the gold medal, topping the previous high watermark of his Japanese counterpart, Yuzuru Hanyu, a fantastic skater in his own right.

Congratulations to these outstanding athletes for their incredible performances. May they, and the future athletes that succeed them in the coming years, decades, and centuries, continue to push the envelope and set new standards for generations to come.