Bolt is only 22, I doubt he's near his peak strength yet. Barring injury he's not done with the record books. The Beijing track may have been fast but its at sea level and there was a headwind for both his times. A 2m/s tailwind is estimated to add about a tenth of a second.
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Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.
Legend
Thing about bolt it he is a big guy with a big stride - and guys like that are not usually anywhere near as fast Bolt is. That's what makes Bolt special - he's big with a massive stride, and very fast with it to use that stride to best advantage.
Mintmaster
Veteran
Put Bolt up against all other 6'5" athletes and he'll blow them out of the water by a much bigger margin than Johnson was able to beat people his size. That's what makes Bolt so unique.
Yes, his height and stride gives him an advantage, but nobody in the history of track and field has ever been able to use that to overcome the disadvantages of added air resistance and mass.
BTW, have you ever seen Donovan Bailey's 100m run in Atlanta? After the first 10-20m he was at the very back and a couple metres behind the leader. That he was able to break the record after that terrible start shows how fast he went. Most sources cite his top speed as 12.1 m/s in that race. Bolt's was about the same (0.82s per 10m = 12.2 m/s), but he had a great start.
Michael Johnson's record was amazing in that nobody could get near it for over a decade, but given that Bolt himself didn't get close before Beijing makes this run just as great. It will be fun watching him for the next decade.
Not forgetting Bolt wasn't actually running flat out through the entire 100m race (He was showboating for a good 10~20m, hard to put all your effort in when you are playing to the crowd 
) I think his max speed might not be reflected by simply working it out.
Anyway, Bolt is amazing (His size is definitely no advantage for a sprinter), I would like to see him try a few less demanding events too like the long jump to see if he can emulate the great Carl Lewis (without the drug use) medal haul.
Does anyone have a breakdown of each runners time?
I've read that Bolt did 9.96 on the bend (which means if he could emulate his record run in the 200m he would've done the second 100 in 9.34.) People are making out Powell did something special, but having watched a few replays it looks like he lost a bit of the gap he had not increased it.
) I think his max speed might not be reflected by simply working it out.Anyway, Bolt is amazing (His size is definitely no advantage for a sprinter), I would like to see him try a few less demanding events too like the long jump to see if he can emulate the great Carl Lewis (without the drug use) medal haul.
Does anyone have a breakdown of each runners time?
I've read that Bolt did 9.96 on the bend (which means if he could emulate his record run in the 200m he would've done the second 100 in 9.34.
) People are making out Powell did something special, but having watched a few replays it looks like he lost a bit of the gap he had not increased it.Added air resistance and mass?
That my friend is ridiculous. They are going just over 20mph.
It is actually much simpler it is the lever arm on the legs that make them harder to turn over. If a tall person can take the same number of strides per second they will decimate the competition.
Looks like China 'll surely top the medal tally for the first ever time that by a hefty margin. One has to give it to the Chinese, amazing work! Russians too surged astonishingly in last few days, 3rd now. Britain is doing extremely well too, France has been a disappointment..Italy too I guess.
Actually their top speed is over 27 mph (at least I remember it was for Donovan Bailey).
But yes, Bolt only takes 41 strides in the 100m dash, most of the competition takes 44. His turnover can actually be 5% slower and he'll still win by a step (2m+).
Captain Chickenpants
Regular
Bitter much?
They have though.
The gymnasts made it clear. They did not even need to either. That is why it was strange. I am sure they had some people that were old enough who had been raised in their sports training they could have used instead of the kids.
There was some dodgy decision in the boxing too, but is that the Chinese competitors problem or the stupid judges?
I doubt any of the athletes could ever be classed as "cheats" China don't fuck about they have banned all their drugs cheats without fail for about 8 years now. Much better than places like the US and UK for instance.
I doubt any of the athletes could ever be classed as "cheats" China don't fuck about they have banned all their drugs cheats without fail for about 8 years now. Much better than places like the US and UK for instance.
It's only the top and bottom score that's discarded isn't it? I think most events do have an element such as this anyway. In boxing for example a point is only scored if 3 out of 5 judges decide a scoring punch has occurred. The same goes for Taekwondo (2 out of 4 judges). The gymnastics also discards top and bottom scores. Doesn't seem to stop odd stuff happening though.
Only today, a British Taekwondo fighter had her loss reversed after a ridiculous decision in her fight against a (ahem) Chinese fighter. A last minute kick to the head should have won the fight but bizarelly no point was awarded. So in this case 3 out of the 4 judges somehow decided it was a scoring kick, which defies belief if you saw it.
For a laugh, people should check out the reaction of the Cuban Taekwondo fighter when he got disqualified for taking too long to treat an injury. "Bad loser" somehow doesn't quite cut the mustard.
Top 2 and bottom 2 are discarded for diving. Middle 3 scores are used.
3 out of 4 judges are required recognize a hit to score in taekwondo.
Not at all. I'm merely stating historical events.
Mintmaster
Veteran
Ridiculous? How fast do you think Bolt would have gone with a massive 12.2 m/s tail wind? That's how fast the wind would have to be to eliminate air resistance. Of course it makes a difference. Scale a 5'7" guy (e.g. Walter Dix) to 6'5" and you have 32% more frontal surface area. I know it's not going to scale quite like that, but the difference is still very significant.
Mass matters a lot in the 100m because acceleration time is decent percentage of the total race time.
BTW, top speed is over 27 mph, not 20 mph. I can feel a huge difference in resistance with a mere ~10 mph wind on rollerblades, so you can be sure that 27mph will affect sprinters greatly. That's why altitude and tailwind affect run times.
The lever arm doesn't mean much, particularly because tall people have longer muscles and the tendons are anchored further away from the joint. If two muscles exert the same force while contracting 5% in 0.2 seconds, the longer one outputs more power. Attach them to proportionately scaled lever mechanisms and you get the same force at the end effector, but the longer one travels a greater distance. On top of this, taller people have larger cross-section in their muscles, leading to greater force as opposed to equal.
Your second claim is just stating the obvious.
Kyyla
Veteran
27mph on my road bike sure generates a lot of wind resistance. For me the difference between head and tailwind can easily be 10mph.
Captain Chickenpants
Regular
Even if the two gymnasts are under age, which is still under review (although personally it does seem to be the case) so is not historical fact yet, removing their golds would still have China winning by some margin.
My issue with your comment was more that with a simple sentence you are effectively labling all the chinese competitors as cheats, and saying that is the only reason they are at the top of the table. Which really isn't fair on the athletes who have worked hard to get where they are.
CC
My issue with your comment was more that with a simple sentence you are effectively labling all the chinese competitors as cheats, and saying that is the only reason they are at the top of the table. Which really isn't fair on the athletes who have worked hard to get where they are.
CC
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