On April 15, 1970, fifty-six years ago, the record for distance travelled from earth by humans to outer space was set by the Apollo 13 mission. That distance was 248, 655 miles.   Yesterday that record was beaten by Artemis II with a 4,105 mile improvement to 252,760 miles.   That is a 1.65% improvement over the old record.   This 1.65% gain is getting incredible publicity at the moment. Since this is a track and field blog, I thought I would look at and compare   some track and field record improvements over the same time period.  On those same dates   the records for several track and field events and their improvements are seen below.   Interestingly women’s performance increases have exceeded men’s in all but the discus and 200 meters.    Hardly any women were pole vaulting in 1970, so that makes that improvement somewhat less significant, but in all else, I think women have beaten men in increased performance. A more extensive...