Did anyone else see it? I watched it this morning and it was awesome. He did it in 9.71 but they changed it to 9.72 for some reason.

yeah that was insane, he beat asafa powell's record & ran a 9.76 last month

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Yeah he destroyed Gay who also had an impressive showing.

he looked really good. with this new 100m time, expect to see him record a new pb in the 200 soon as well. i think he can run 19.5x over 200m.

also, lashawn merritt beat jeremy wariner over 400m. looks like the US trials are going to be competitive and the gold for the 400m at beijing is up for grabs.

Man I can't wait for the Olympics. I used to always want to see the boxing and wrestling, but now I can't wait to see the track and field events more than anything.

And of course swimming because Phelps is owning that shit up.

And weightlifting too... Ah hell I'm stoked for it all!

yep, im pretty hyped too!

weightlifting, wrestling, judo, track and field, track cycling, swimming, shit, i can't wait.

cool houston chronicle piece on sprint science at rice university

http://images.chron.com/photos/2008/06/01/11509825/311xInlineGallery.jpg
Jamaica's Usain Bolt poses next to the clock after winning the Men's 100m at the Reebok Grand Prix on Saturday in New York City. Bolt set a new world record, covering the distance in 9.72 seconds.

Bolt's burst in 100 brings up debate on just how fast we can run

If there is a title that sounds cooler than "the fastest man in the world," I'd like to hear it. (And no, husband of "insert name of unattainable Hollywood beauty here" doesn't count.)

That title belongs to Usain Bolt of Jamaica.

Saturday night, Bolt covered 100 meters in an amazing 9.72 seconds to set a world record. Wow. Always a showcase, the sprints at the Beijing Olympics could be explosive, with Bolt and countryman and previous record holder Asafa Powell (9.74) headlining.

Forty years ago, Jim Hines became the first man to break the 10-second barrier. Twenty years ago, it took all the steroids his body could stand for Ben Johnson to cover that distance in 9.79 seconds at the Seoul Olympics.

"Man was not built to run that fast," we thought. Or so logic without logic told us.

But scientific logic says we do not know the (speed) limits of the human body medically enhanced or otherwise.

I feel pretty safe in assuming no man will ever run 100 meters in 6 seconds, but Dr. Peter Weyand won't join me in that generally baseless assumption.

Well, then, just how fast can man run?

"That's always the question of interest," said Weyand, an assistant professor in the department of kinesiology at Rice. "By definition, that's unknowable. It's intrinsically speculative, and there is no way around that."

We do heart transplants, give women breasts they weren't born with and send men to the moon, but we can't figure out the top speed for a human being?


What are man's limits?
Are you really telling me that a man, who is not on steroids or some other performance-enhancing substance besides protein bars, might one day run the 100 in less than 6 seconds?

"A cheetah can," Weyand said.

Your point?

"Well, cheetahs have the same muscles, tendons and bone structure as humans," Weyand said.

Hold it right there, doc.

Thanks for the enlightening information that we are built with the same material as our four-legged friends, but I'll need more before I'm convinced we could run like them.

Weyand figures Bolt topped out at 26-27 mph in his record run at the Reebok Grand Prix in New York.

Working with similar tools, a cheetah can sprint up to 69 mph.

In other words, humans have room for improvement.

It won't come overnight. The 100-meter record is on a steady decline — it has been broken five times since the 2004 Olympics, but we're talking fractions of seconds here.

That is why science (and not just medical science) might play a significant role. (Let's not even get into what could happen if genetic engineering enters the picture.)

Weyand is among a small but growing list of scientists who are studying sprint performance. For years, cyclists and distance runners have used this type of science, looking to maximize performance.

Only in the past decade have members of the sprint community started to look to science for answers to the question: "How can I run faster?"

"What we know about sprint performance is much less complete than what we have learned about endurance performance," Weyand said.

Something seemingly small — like top speed being determined by the amount of force to the ground rather than faster leg movement, a fact a group including Weyand released in a 2005 study — could be significant in training.

Weyand said all the runners in the world-record race were moving their legs at about the same speed, but Bolt's ability to deliver more force to the ground relative to his body weight made the difference.

A runner of Bolt's caliber touches the ground less than one-tenth of a second with each stride, delivering a force four or five times his body weight in that period.

Bolt did not move his legs any faster than did Carl Lewis, whose best time in the 100 was more than one-tenth of a second slower than Bolt's record sprint, he just delivered more force.

Future runners will measure things like force-to-ground, work on specific techniques to improve that, and the record time will shrink.


Height can hurt
What might be most impressive about Bolt is his height. Cheetahs stand about 4 feet tall. Bolt is almost 6-5.

"The smaller you are, the more force you can generate to body mass," Weyand said. "That's why gymnasts can do triple back flips, and Shaquille O'Neal and Yao Ming can't. You can't even conceive of them doing that.

"For him (Bolt) to be able to get out of the blocks fast enough and cover the first 20-30 meters without losing ground to the smaller runners is amazing.

"In that race, there is an advantage to being short."

But it is better to be short in terms of time. Bolt is certainly that.

cool houston chronicle piece on sprint science at rice university

http://images.chron.com/photos/2008/06/01/11509825/311xInlineGallery.jpg
Jamaica's Usain Bolt poses next to the clock after winning the Men's 100m at the Reebok Grand Prix on Saturday in New York City. Bolt set a new world record, covering the distance in 9.72 seconds.

Bolt's burst in 100 brings up debate on just how fast we can run

If there is a title that sounds cooler than "the fastest man in the world," I'd like to hear it. (And no, husband of "insert name of unattainable Hollywood beauty here" doesn't count.)

That title belongs to Usain Bolt of Jamaica.

Saturday night, Bolt covered 100 meters in an amazing 9.72 seconds to set a world record. Wow. Always a showcase, the sprints at the Beijing Olympics could be explosive, with Bolt and countryman and previous record holder Asafa Powell (9.74) headlining.

Forty years ago, Jim Hines became the first man to break the 10-second barrier. Twenty years ago, it took all the steroids his body could stand for Ben Johnson to cover that distance in 9.79 seconds at the Seoul Olympics.

"Man was not built to run that fast," we thought. Or so logic without logic told us.

But scientific logic says we do not know the (speed) limits of the human body medically enhanced or otherwise.

I feel pretty safe in assuming no man will ever run 100 meters in 6 seconds, but Dr. Peter Weyand won't join me in that generally baseless assumption.

Well, then, just how fast can man run?

"That's always the question of interest," said Weyand, an assistant professor in the department of kinesiology at Rice. "By definition, that's unknowable. It's intrinsically speculative, and there is no way around that."

We do heart transplants, give women breasts they weren't born with and send men to the moon, but we can't figure out the top speed for a human being?


What are man's limits?
Are you really telling me that a man, who is not on steroids or some other performance-enhancing substance besides protein bars, might one day run the 100 in less than 6 seconds?

"A cheetah can," Weyand said.

Your point?

"Well, cheetahs have the same muscles, tendons and bone structure as humans," Weyand said.

Hold it right there, doc.

Thanks for the enlightening information that we are built with the same material as our four-legged friends, but I'll need more before I'm convinced we could run like them.

Weyand figures Bolt topped out at 26-27 mph in his record run at the Reebok Grand Prix in New York.

Working with similar tools, a cheetah can sprint up to 69 mph.

In other words, humans have room for improvement.

It won't come overnight. The 100-meter record is on a steady decline — it has been broken five times since the 2004 Olympics, but we're talking fractions of seconds here.

That is why science (and not just medical science) might play a significant role. (Let's not even get into what could happen if genetic engineering enters the picture.)

Weyand is among a small but growing list of scientists who are studying sprint performance. For years, cyclists and distance runners have used this type of science, looking to maximize performance.

Only in the past decade have members of the sprint community started to look to science for answers to the question: "How can I run faster?"

"What we know about sprint performance is much less complete than what we have learned about endurance performance," Weyand said.

Something seemingly small — like top speed being determined by the amount of force to the ground rather than faster leg movement, a fact a group including Weyand released in a 2005 study — could be significant in training.

Weyand said all the runners in the world-record race were moving their legs at about the same speed, but Bolt's ability to deliver more force to the ground relative to his body weight made the difference.

A runner of Bolt's caliber touches the ground less than one-tenth of a second with each stride, delivering a force four or five times his body weight in that period.

Bolt did not move his legs any faster than did Carl Lewis, whose best time in the 100 was more than one-tenth of a second slower than Bolt's record sprint, he just delivered more force.

Future runners will measure things like force-to-ground, work on specific techniques to improve that, and the record time will shrink.


Height can hurt
What might be most impressive about Bolt is his height. Cheetahs stand about 4 feet tall. Bolt is almost 6-5.

"The smaller you are, the more force you can generate to body mass," Weyand said. "That's why gymnasts can do triple back flips, and Shaquille O'Neal and Yao Ming can't. You can't even conceive of them doing that.

"For him (Bolt) to be able to get out of the blocks fast enough and cover the first 20-30 meters without losing ground to the smaller runners is amazing.

"In that race, there is an advantage to being short."

But it is better to be short in terms of time. Bolt is certainly that.

I wish they'd leave Ben Johnson alone I'm sure most Olympic athletes juice and they made it such a big deal with him.

Also Kelly Bagget says stride length is king in his speed manual so IMO taller runners would have naturally longer stride length due to longer limbs where as shorter runners would have an easier time generating force. Making shorter people accelerate faster, but taller people top out higher.

should be an interesting olympic final assuming bolt, powell & gay all make it. and it was a wind aided 9.68 so not a legit world record but the fastest anyone has covered 100m on record

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This thread made me a fan of track and field events... I never knew track and field events were so exciting! I think if i had to choose between MMA and Track events...
Then i must go with track events.. its so inspiring...

God damn black people and their fast-twitch muscle fiber dominance. Note, not a single white guy in that race.

man this thread is so dated...the fastest 100m ever isnt 9.72 anymore

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i know lol

This guy pissed me off.

He should have set the best record possible. Not go all glory at the end.

What if he broke his leg and someone shot him like they do with horses? And then the next World meet someone breaks his record because it wasn't his best record and he slowed down at the end.

This guy pissed me off.

He should have set the best record possible. Not go all glory at the end.

What if he broke his leg and someone shot him like they do with horses? And then the next World meet someone breaks his record because it wasn't his best record and he slowed down at the end.

Ben Johnson did the same thing. Next thing you know he tested positive for steroids and never raced again.