August 06, 2012

One Race, Every Medalist Ever: Comparing Usain Bolt's 2012 gold medal to every other 100m medalist in the history of the modern Olympic games.

posted by grum@work to olympics at 10:00 AM - 7 comments

Great info. Now if we could just send that 8-9 year old back in time to win that bronze medal.

posted by 67nickel at 10:46 AM on August 06, 2012

If you scroll all the way down, they have similar analysis for the long jump and 100m freestyle swimming. I'm surprised that Bob Beamon's 1968 long jump record still holds, what with the way other track + field records have been broken over the years.

Too busy to look right now, but is that the oldest standing (jumping, really) track + field record?

posted by kokaku at 11:21 AM on August 06, 2012

I'm surprised that Bob Beamon's 1968 long jump record still holds, what with the way other track + field records have been broken over the years.

It might be the longest standing Olympic record, but it isn't a world record as Mike Powell beat Beamon's jump in 1991.

Beamon obliterated the record at those Olympics with a perfect combination of launching point/angle, wind speed (2.0m/s, the max) and altitude (less wind resistance). He "out-jumped history", pushing the record at least 30 years (or more) into the future. The prior record was 8.35m, and he jumped 8.90m.

posted by grum@work at 11:31 AM on August 06, 2012

Ah. I see they mentioned the Powell thing in the presentation. My bad.

posted by grum@work at 11:50 AM on August 06, 2012

Too busy to look right now, but is that the oldest standing (jumping, really) track + field record?

Jarmila Kratochvilova, Czechoslovakia, 800m, July 26th, 1983 -- 1:53.28. The closest any woman has come since was Pamela Jemilo of Kenya, who got 1:54.01 soon after the 2008 Olympics.

posted by Etrigan at 12:01 PM on August 06, 2012

And while commentators never explicitly say what they think about that 800m record, you can tell what they think about it. Kazanika's 1500m world record, set in 1980, lasted until it was broken by Qu Yunxia during the 1993 Chinese championships in Beijing, and there are similar questions about that generation of Chinese runners.

posted by etagloh at 12:48 PM on August 06, 2012

I looked at the 200-meter list. It's shocking how much Bolt and Michael Johnson surpass everyone else ... and Bolt later got the world record down to 19.19.

posted by jjzucal at 11:41 PM on August 07, 2012

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