this, im sure if everyone on the planet atm trained for the olympics, you might see something below 9s

but the thing is, only a tiny proportion of ppl train for olympic sprinting

With the amount of time, energy and finance spent on scouting these days, it's pretty rare an athlete like Donovan Bailey would slip through the cracks like 20 or 30 years ago. Regardless of the individuals chosen craft

Potential is wasted every day, that is true. The OP isn't talking about good athletes or good potential, he's talking about generational athletes and genetic freaks. At least that's how I understood it.

Yeah. However I do disagree with your earlier post about 9.2 or 9.3 not being possible. Even if Bolt uses PEDS, imagine if he could use whichever ones he wanted (ie. the most performance enhancing) instead of the ones that are the most convenient for avoiding detection. A lot of athletes go clean in the run up to the olympics and just train on PEDS, but imagine if they could go into the olympics on all kinds of gear.

For something like sprinting there is a fine line between what works and what becomes too much and is detrimental to speed. Even if Bolt was geared to the max, I still don't think it's possible. His start isn't ever going to be fast enough and his turnover rate wouldn't be either. His legs are too long. I maintain that it's physically impossible for a human being to run that kind of time in a 100m race. For a sprinter like bolt to achieve a speed like that he would have to be much stronger and it would inevitably reach a threshold where it would start slowing him down. In fact, he's almost at it now.

When an athlete starts having injuries, it could mean they're starting to reach the limits of what their body is capable of, and I think Bolt hit that point, which is why he's started having injuries the last few years. PEDs might stretch that a little further, but PEDs won't hold those ligaments, tendons and muscles together any better under those kinds of stress. That's not what they do.

You have quicker recovery on steroids and you're less likely to get injuries. But even so, Bolt says he could have gone under 9.5 and I believe him. He isn't the best trainer in the world and he slows down to celebrate at the end, which kinda pisses me off. Probably could have shaved 0.05 seconds off his WR of 9.58 had he stayed focused and edged his head forward. Also could have had better wind assistance.

So there's a few areas where I think he could have improved upon his record and gone under 9.5 at the very least. And that isn't even considering the possibility of someone that is more genetically gifted than Bolt...it could happen.

This post was edited by dro94 on Aug 15 2016 06:13pm

less likely to get injuries?

id argue it may be the opposite

joint issues

strength increase faster than tendons and can keep up

In some ways, what noob wacker said. The argument can go both ways tho. Even with growth hormones, tendon and ligament recovery is very slow. Tendons and ligaments can only be so strong, that's just a reality. stupid amounts of growth hormones still can't change it relative to muscle growth. The stronger you get, the increased risk of injury. PEDs will not change that. With muscle injuries, PEDs will not change the reality that if the muscle fibres are over exerted they will strain. The inividual muscle fibres don't get stronger or more elastic strictly from PEDS. Like you said though, PEDs do really increase recovery time and recovery potential with major injuries. PED is a pretty generic term too. It is not exclusive to anablic steroids or growth hormones.

As for Bolt's 9.58 run. He admitted that he ran as best he could through the finish line. He's not good at dipping, but he did sort of try. It's probably not easy for him considering his body type and sheer speed. He might have knocked 1 or 2 100ths off if he was actually good at dipping. That's all it's good for. He also had an OUTSTANDING start compared to many of his races. Yes, a tail win could have helped him but he did have a tail wind of 0.9m/s so it did help him. There is more allowable there sure, but he did have one.

I think if bolt ran a PERFECT race with a little more tail wind, he could have approached 9.50 but I've been arguing that that's all the human body can do; 9.50s. MAYBE high 9.4s. Like 9.48 or 9.49. That's our ceiling

You guys have been arguing 9.2 or 9.3s. It's just not realistic. 2 10ths of a second is light years in a 100m race.

I won't dispute that Bolt could have, in a perfect world, knocked a little more time off his current world record. he's the perfect candiate to do so. The only candidate really.

depends on the gear



bolts record will definitely get shattered, humans keep getting bigger stronger and faster as time goes on.

9.2 or 9.3 over a 100+ years of a slow progression. It was widely believed that no human could go under 10 seconds, now we're 0.42 seconds below it. We don't know we've hit our ceiling until we stall and I guess we'll find out if in 50 years or so Bolt's record still stands.

I think his 200m will definitely be broken though. He might even break it himself in a few days time

I remember reading somewhere that once we reach a certain speed our muscles begin tearing away from tendons unless we've been genetically gifted. So I can believe that elite athletic ability CAN be so rare that records stand the test of time.