There’s fast. And then there’s Usain Bolt.
The Jamaican wunderkind smashed his own 100-meter world record Sunday in Berlin, and this performance may well change the course of sprinting as we know it. Bolt’s 6-foot-5 frame is several inches taller than any other world-class 100-meter man. His massive stride (commonly thought of as a weakness in an event where foot speed and RPMs are all the rage) allows him to chew up track faster than any other person on the planet.
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What’s truly remarkable, however, is that Bolt — in a sport where longevity at the top is fleeting — is dominating at a level we’ve never seen before. He ran a 9.69 last year at the Beijing Olympics, coasting the final 10 meters and celebrating as he crossed the line. A Stanford professor estimated he could’ve gone 9.55 if he ran hard the whole way. We rolled our eyes. Even after watching Bolt dust the rest of the field it was hard to imagine someone going sub-9.6.
Then, Sunday in Berlin, Bolt, clipping along at around 30 mph (that’s twice the speed limit in a school zone) powered his way to a 9.58. American Tyson Gay (who finished second in 9.71 and set a U.S. record in the process) looked like he was jogging. “It’s like he’s 30 years before his time,” ESPN track & field reporter Larry Rawson said of Bolt.
We find it difficult to argue with Rawson. Bolt’s blend of size, speed and power, simply put, is remarkable.
