Jim Ratcliffe, the British petrochemicals billionaire, was on a 5,000-mile motorcycle journey through the Andes a few years ago and feeling pretty bored with the state of sports. No one was really going after the biggest barriers in human performance anymore, he thought. What was even left?

Then, somewhere on the road in Argentina, he settled on a sporting achievement that actually excited him: Ratcliffe wanted to see someone run a marathon in under 2 hours. So he hired some of the best scientists in sports and the best marathoner in the world to make it happen. And in 2019, on a closed course in Vienna, Eliud Kipchoge ran 26.2 miles in 1 hour and 59 minutes.