Beyond Bolt: can the fastest men get faster?
- Thread starter SteveJ
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We've seen such a leap in the past 80 years, because science became such a large part of sport. Hell you only need to look back 20 years to see how much has changed. Footballer of the 80's would get slaughtered in the modern age in terms of touch, fitness, tactics etc 'but thats all relative to each generational gap'
I doubt very much we'll see men touch 40mph without genetic engineering beyond what we would call natural. For me it seems we went from 40% to 85% of the natural peak, but that last 15% will be the hardest to crack.
I reckon peak speed is around 32-35 mph.
I doubt very much we'll see men touch 40mph without genetic engineering beyond what we would call natural. For me it seems we went from 40% to 85% of the natural peak, but that last 15% will be the hardest to crack.
I reckon peak speed is around 32-35 mph.
Most of the fat's already been cut off. In fact if you look any of the other men's world records beyond 200m, there's been next to no improvement in the last 10-15 years. In the 800m for example, there's been no discernible improvement on the times run by Seb Coe and Joaquim Cruz 30 years ago. While on the women's side, I'd be surprised if any of the world records for 800m or less will be broken in the next 20 years, because they haven't been approached in the last 20.
Someone one day will break 30mph but I don't think there is any chance of over 40mph unless we start a Deus Ex style world.
The women's records are almost untouchable by current athletes as they do not have the advantage of undetected drug enhancements like Koch and Flo-Jo had.
There is something suspicious about the numbers in Steve's post. Is the Guardian suggesting that Bolt at top speed is almost 30% (28 to 21.7) faster than Owens? Their overall 100m times don't suggest this - Bolt (9.58) is less than 10% faster than Owens (10.3).
Bolt's average speed in the WR 100m was 23.72. His top speed would be a decent bit higher than that since he probably doesn't hit it until about 60m into the race.
His 200m time is more impressive than the 100m, imo. I would love to see him run the 400 at some point. He might even be the only non-American in the top 10 fastest 400m runners.
One of his splits in a 200m was 9.34.
His 200m time is more impressive than the 100m, imo. I would love to see him run the 400 at some point. He might even be the only non-American in the top 10 fastest 400m runners.
One of his splits in a 200m was 9.34.Fair point about the women's records, I'd be surprised if some of those are broken in the next 50-60 years.
The numbers for Jesse Owens are a load of bollocks really. On the basis of 10m splits for 10.2 - 10.3 runners, Owens would have hit over 25mph at top speed. In 75 years therefore, there's only been an improvement of 2mph or so. And even Bolt is probably only 0.3mph or so faster at top speed than Johnson and Lewis 25 years earlier.
Maybe if we dope all the athletes with performance enhancing drugs?
pretty much what i think too. 30mph is a mark i expect to be broken in time, not 40mph though.