Usain Bolt cemented his status as The World’s Fastest Man in the 100m final at the Beijing Olympics. Bolt’s record setting time of 9.69 was .003 seconds faster than the mark he set in May, and it could have been better if Usain hadn’t slowed down to glorify himself the final 20 meters.
Physicist from the Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics at the University of Oslo decided to take on the task of figuring out exactly how fast Usain Bolt could have run. The physicist analyzed position, speed, and acceleration using footage of Bolt and runner-up Richard Thompson.
From ESPN.com via AP:
“We estimate that he could have finished the race in a time between 9.55 and 9.61,” Norwegian physicist Hans Eriksen said Friday in a telephone interview.
“We don’t mean to say that this is the final and ultimate result,” Eriksen was quoted as saying in New Scientist magazine. “Instead, it’s a fun application and simple physics.”
A time of 9.55 would have rocked the Olympics, but I think Usain Bolt did the right thing. By slowing down with the record in hand Bolt has turned every race he runs into must see tv. The world knows he can run faster and is waiting for him to set a new record.
