Tech contributing to dramatic sports performance increases?

OK, this boggles my mind. 20 years ago, I was a decent darts player, playing a lot with coworkers. (Decent = beat most randos in a pub, but definitely not impressive.) I had no idea how good the elite in darts have gotten.

These guys are playing 501, the theoretical best is 3x triple 20s leaving 141, then trip 20, trip 19, trip 12. The match lasts all of one minute.

I got there via a NYT article on sports performance. Another eye opener: performance in archery with recurve bows, i.e. no fancy pulleys like compound bows. They used to shoot from 30 meters, which I would consider quite a long shot. They changed to 70 meters, which for me means too far to have any chance of hitting the target. Here's the track of scores before and after the switch.

Archers today are scoring better at 70 meters than they did from 30 just sixty years ago.

In both cases, tech has made some of the difference, with aluminum arrows, and narrower target wires with beveled edges. But still...damn!