Track and field is in high gear now, as just about everyone expected to be in contention for medals has begun competing. This weekend we get the second Diamond League meeting in Shanghai/Suhoux China. Watching the press conference for the meet, the first question that was asked was to Christian Coleman regarding the current WR in the men’s 100m. Simple question, can it be broken. A fair question given the length of time the record has been on the books. Christian did his best to answer, but I think this record is a little more “complicated” than saying, we’ve got some guys that can run that fast. Especially when we’ve not seen athletes running under 9.80 for a couple of seasons now. So, I’m going to give my answer to the question.

I think there are two things necessary to break a record of this magnitude. Things that don’t normally come up in general conversation. The first is a heated rivalry. Not a rivalry on paper – a couple of athletes whose times are close. Athletes that really, truly want to beat each other! A passionate rivalry. In the 1960’s Jim Hines vs Charlie Greene was such a rivalry.  Resulting in the first sub 10 in Mexico City, 9.95 by Hines. As Greene and Hines had been going back and forth for a couple of seasons. By the way, Greene actually had the most wins between them. 

The next real rivalry in the event was one of the most famous in the sport, Carl Lewis vs Ben Johnson. Carl winning gold in 1984 over Ben. With Ben working hard to return the favor over the next two seasons. Their matchups at Worlds ’87 and the Olympics in’88 resulting in WR’s of 9.83 and 9.79! Of course we discovered that the rivalry pushed Ben to lengths he shouldn’t have taken. The next real rivalry was Tim Montgomery vs Maurice Greene. Again, two athletes that both wanted to be on top of the podium. And again resulting in a WR, actually two. This time for Greene in 9.79, with Montgomery later running 9.78. Unfortunately, like Ben Johnson, Montgomery went a bit too far in his chasing of Greene. 

In each case, these rivalries led to athletes giving their all to be on top. Which brings us to the last real rivalry – Jamaica vs US. This began with Justin Gatlin and Asafa Powell as they went at it beginning in 2004. Gatlin winning the Olympics, then Worlds in ’05. Powell setting records in ’05, ’06,’07. Then Tyson Gay becomes World Champion in ’07 he is now the man. Then Bolt moves down and he gets close to the record in a race in Jamaica in early ’08. Setting up a Bolt vs Gay clash in New York. This, in my opinion is where 9.58 is born. As Bolt and Gay run very fast, Bolt winning in a new WR of 9.72. Tyson now wanting revenge. He’s the World champion, and wants to win the Olympics. He runs an American record at the Trials of 9.77, along with a windy 9.68 – fastest ever. Now we’ve got Carl and Ben all over again,. As the world is talking about the matchup. Except Tyson gets hurt. Tried to get healthy, but isn’t ready in Beijing. Bolt wins in another record of 9.69. And everyone is waiting for next year. 

The talk of 2009 was the upcoming World Championships and Bolt and Gay. They enter Berlin with Gay leading the world at 9.77, Bolt having run 9.79. It doesn’t get much better than that. Everyone knows the rest of the story by now. Bolt wins in 9.58, Tyson runs 9.72. He later runs 9.69 to finish his season. Take note that these are the fastest times ever run, still. Fifteen years later. What’s happened? Well, I believe it’s the second thing that no one talks about, and everyone talks about – just not with respect to the record. That is the false start rule.

In Berlin, the rule was different than it is today. In Berlin if there was a false start, no one was thrown out. Everyone was given a warning, and the race was restarted. As a matter of fact, Bolt had a false start in his semi in Berlin! By today’s rule he would’ve been tossed out, and perhaps the WR would be different. This actually did happen in the next World Championships with the new rule, and it was Bolt that false started in the final and WAS tossed out. This is very important, because when you look at the Berlin race Bolt led from the first 10m segment to the finish. He was never behind. It takes that kind of race, start to finish, to run that fast. 

That type of race is almost impossible today, because athletes thoughts in the blocks today isn’t about getting out quickly, but not to move! A completely different set of movement instructions being sent to the brain. Because any movement could trigger the sensors in the starting blocks that signal a false start. Now athletes are thrown out of races without any visible sign of movement, none. So the race is actually very different today than it was in 2009. We’re talking fractions of seconds here, but that’s what it takes to break sprint records. Take note that Bolt was only 22 years old when he broke the record. He competed another eight seasons. Should have been into his prime, but never caught up with himself! Ditto Tyson Gay, though injuries hurt him. But the same for Asafa Powell. All got “slower” when physically they should have been capable of faster. So while I believe that a good old fashioned rivalry has the potential to feed faster times. I think that those that run the sport need to look at the false start rule, because it’s damaging the sport in many ways. This is just one. I plan on a post soon on the rule and it’s affects. 

Oh, I think Coleman was correct, sort of. There are athletes with the foot speed to challenge that record. We’ve got tracks engineered to be fast enough. And carbon fiber shoes to help. The problem is we’re throttling the athletes at the start line! In an event with zero tolerance for mistakes. On your mark, set, don’t move – don’t even twitch. Red light.