A week ago I wrote that “[Usain] Bolt is forcing us to rethink what’s possible.”
Here’s some math that is forcing me to tweak that statement. Turns out that he hasn’t changed what’s possible; he’s just done it much, much sooner than mathematical models suggested would happen. Though looking at the graph, it’s clear that the old models don’t really describe what’s happening with the 100m records.
The article confirms that Bolt, though, still might be redefining the type of body that is considered ideal for a sprinter.
Weyand, who has conducted research on the body types of the top 45 100-meter sprinters in the last 15 years, said that almost all elite runners conform to the body norms for their race length, except for the most-recent Olympic champion.
“Bolt is an outlier. He’s enormous,” Weyand said. “Typically when you get someone that big, they can’t start.”
[....]
“We don’t really know what the best form is and maybe Bolt is redefining that and showing us we missed something,” said biomechanicist John Hutchinson of the Royal Veterinary College at the University of London, who studies how animals move.
