bolt and lewis

[Scdalak]

I know this is a little off topic but I had to post this for a pure entertainment factor. Carl Lewis sure is something else...

This was a classic!!! Well Done!

[Yoruba Hacker]

Usain Bolt is a freak of nature brother. He stands 6'5" and has the athletic coordination of a much smaller man. Michael Johnson is my favorite Olympian of all-time, but he was only 6'1" tall. It's athletic science that if a taller man, with longer legs, is trained properly he will take few strides to get to the end of the race faster. There is evidence in this games by Aries Merritt of the USA who won gold in the 110M hurdles. Merritt set personal bests this year and won gold by merely changing his lead leg at the blocks so he took one less step before the first hurdle. That one change made all the difference in Gold vs. no medal for him.

Also, Since winning double gold in 2008 Bolt has been raking in the money (some say has much has $20,000,000 per year). His new found wealth and ability to afford the best of training, nutrition etc could also have made a difference.

Hey wait guys, don't get me wrong. I love Usain Bolt. Love the kid. He's otherworldly. His talent is on a completely different chart.

But don't get it twisted.

In the sprints, the fastest time ever recorded by man (which I like better than "World Record") improves glacially; hundredths of a second or so at a time. Again, it took from 1979 to 1996 for the human race to improve from a best ever of 19.72 to Johnson's 19.66. 6/100ths in nearly twenty years, which was a shocking result at the time. And again, I throw Johnson's 19.32 out as an aberration. To say MJ was a 19.32 200 man is like saying Beamon was a 29-foot long jumper. It's just not representative.

And also, I was wrong before. Bolt has run faster than 19.66 9 times, and his 10th best time is 19.67.

His 10th best time.

His 10th best time is essentially what it took the whole human race 17 years and the history of human beings to do, ex-of the aberrant 19.32.

His top ten average is 19.467, which has been exceeded by only two men, and each just once.

And all of those times were done in the past four years.

Again, inhuman talent, but he ain't getting there casue of his diet.

Which, again, is ok. He is superior to other humans, just like Barry was superior to other humans. It's ok. But it is what it is.

[Yoruba Hacker]

One of the announcers said it best "he only has to take 41 strides to everyone else's 44. Even if he has a bad start, once he gets up to speed he is almost impossible to beat." So yes, his 6'5" stature is a plus, but he also can match (or best) all the other sprinters acceleration as well. Being tall isn't the only reason he wins, but all else being equal, it's what allows him to be faster than his competition.

Welllll.....

Not to be argumentative here, because I'm delighted to be talking track under any circumstances (thanks guys), but stride length is not about leg length. It's a complex combination of force applied to the ground (track) and center of gravity. The details will bore everyone to tears, but I posit that the reason that Usain needs 41 strides is that he is incredibly powerful (in a physics apply-force-to-an-object sense). He's more explosive.

It's what made Carl Lewis the greatest long jumper of all time. It's not surprising that Bolt often speaks of taking up the long jump.

And Beaver, there seems to be a move towards taller sprinters. In the hundred final there were at least three guys 6'3" or taller, and i would guess the average height to be between 6'1 and 6"2". That never happened back in the day. Sprinters used to be like 5'8-5'10" on average. Remember how Carl was considered an unusually tall sprinter in his day? He was 6'2". Ryan Bailey is 6'4" and only getting better.

[canadianbeaver]

Thiat is what I meant about the 2012 edition. The evolution of these athletes ... We will see...

[Ken Gargett]

Hmmm...

OK, so here's how ESPN reported it:

http://espn.go.com/o...lete-carl-lewis

Again, I have no problem with what Carl said. At least with what this article says he said.

Also, there have been a couple of references (this and other threads) to Carl Lewis and doping. The facts as I remember them were that there was once a positive test for ephedra which was thrown out because of inadverdent consumption (cold medicine). Later confirmed that the amount that was in his sytem at the time was far below the current standard for ephedra. It was a non-story, but it's somehow morphed into a grand conspiracy theory thirty years later. Back in the day, there were rumors about Americans like Greg Foster (Hall of Fame hurdler) and FloJo getting caught with positive steroid tests that were somehow intimidated away (the Lance Armstrong "I'll sue your ass" approach), but this was not that.

And let's be clear, Johan Blake WAS banned, albeit briefly, for taking a stimulant (or testing positive for a derivative of a banned stimulant if I remember correctly), along with other members of the Jamaican junior team (can't remember names), so it's not like Lewis is coming out of his @ss with this stuff.

<Rant alert>

I used to run track and was on the periphery of the circuit (nowhere near these guys), and I gotta tell ya, I get that it's just numbers on a page to you guys, but there's simply no way a human being can regularly crank out sub-9.8 and 19.7 100 and 200 meters without help.

Hell, just think about it: Michael Johnson, himself a superhuman - Homo Superior - on a perfect night, on a perfect track made a Beamonesque advancement in the 200 from the previous greatest 200 in history - his 19.66 on that same track beating the time that was the previous world record for 17 years - to a place people like me would have bet their children they would never see again in their lifetimes - 19.32. And which he never came within .42 of EVER AGAIN at sea level. The greatest long sprinter in history.

And Bolt runs .02 and .13 FASTER into HEADWINDS and equals that 19.32 yesterday VISIBLY SHUTTING IT OFF the final 15 meters or so? Runs faster than Johnson's preposterous 19.66 EIGHT TIMES; FIVE TIMES INTO HEADWINDS, in the last four years, and you're thinking that's cause of yams and plyometrics? You don't make leaps in human performance like that. Beamon's long jump has still only been bettered once. Since 1968!

That said, it ain't cheating if everybody does it, which is the legitimate place to have issue with Carl. He knows there ain't no choirboys on the circuit, and so you have to wonder about him talking this up. Reminds me of the Hall of Famers in US baseball railing against the steroid users' assault on the record books. Bolt is Barry Bonds. Preposterous talent plus world class "resources."

And like Barry, people get mad when natural talent that is already unfair is further augmented. Oh well.

as for bolt, as i said, i hope he is clean. i hope he is just that far ahead of everyone. we'll probably never know.

but what you say about lewis plays down his real record. he tested positive on three separate occasions in the lead up to the 1988 olympics (according to the bloke who was the former head of the US anti-doping organisation for the decade up to 2000). you cannot defend him by saying he was not banned because in those days because the mob who were supposed to ban him were the officials who wanted him to run - there was no independent anti-doping agency till 2000, i believe (and according to the same bloke, there is still one US athlete who tested postive to steroids in 1999 but was allowed by run in sydney and won a medal - never named, "because of privacy laws"). for me, lewis was just as much of a drug cheat as johnson. lewis has defended this by saying everyone did it (i saw a post saying that if everyone does it, it isn't cheating - yes it is).

and to be fair to him, he was almost certainly right. apparently more than 100 US athletes got letters from their officials (pre the independent agency) confirming they'd tested positive but as it was clearly an instance of inadvertent doping, no action would be taken. it was a complete joke, encouraged by US officials.

now, before anyone accuses me of some ridiculous anti-seppo vendetta, the americans were rank amateurs compared with nations like east germany and many others. britain has had a heap of cheats, some allowed back. and we are rank hypocrites and also just as bad. we are quick to cast doubt on others and then always defend our own cheats. "someone must have spiked his coffee between bouts"! give me a break. we are just as bad. i once asked a mate who ran in the olympics in atlanta about some of our highest profile athletes (world famous in their specific sports) and whether they took drugs - they were national heroes and still rank among the most famous olympians of all time. he didn't actually say they did - he simply could not stop laughing long enough to say anything. apparently, it had never occurred to him that anyone had any doubt. he also named a female athlete who has gone on tv here many times to complain about drugs in sport and how she didn't win any medals because she was up against drug cheats. he was in the same dressing room as her on several occasions when she was pumping herself full of drugs. and our officials both knew and were as compliant as any others. i will say that the one athlete he insisted was not on drugs at any stage of her career was kathy freeman.

so i have a great deal of suspicion about most of the great athletes. and i find that really sad.

[canadianbeaver]

We here in Toronto know a thing or two about runners who come home on wings of glory and then drive their Ferrari away on wheels of shame...

Pee in a cup and take the results like a man.

[harryleech]

I haven't read the Carl Lewis statement, only media reports. Given media are on the same level as politicians, I would like to confirm what he actually said and in context before condemming.

Having said that. There is a preponderace of unsubstantiated mud throwing at these Olympics. You don't have to look any frther than Channel 9 "Media" Swimming commentator Rebecca Wilson casting drug aspertions on the womens Chinese Swimmer Gold medalist.

I would have a slander charge on Wilson within a day if I were the Chinese Swimmer or Chinese Swimming association. If what Lewis said was purportedly correct.....same.

Glad to hear you have a healthy skepticism for the media Rob, just don't lump all of us in the one boat! Some of us still like to deal with facts - and the fact is, that Bolt has never tested positive for anything, ever, at a time when drug-testing is the best it has ever been in human history.

Lewis on the other hand has - on three separate occasions before the 1988 games, but was allowed to compete as he said he'd ingested the stimulants by accident. And he may well have, but if he was being held to the same level as athlete's are today, then he would have been banned.

The rules now state that if something is found in your body, you're the one responsible for how it got there. Spiked by a crazy ex-girlfriend? Your problem for dating her in the first place. Sabotaged by an underhand competitor? Your fault for lending them your toothpaste. That's the level that Bolt is held to and the level that Lewis should have been held to at the time (the rules were different at the time, but not THAT different.)

Blake and a few other Jamaican athletes did test positive for Methylhexaneamine, aka DMAA, aka geranium oil in 2009. Like the ephedra, pseudoephedrine and phenylpropanoline Lewis tested positive, although banned it's found in over the counter products and has caused a heap of problems for athletes worldwide.

I wrote an article on it two years ago here http://www.independent.ie/sport/rugby/confusion-reigns-for-athletes-in-war-on-drugs-2429313.html and one a few weeks ago for the Sunday Times (which is behind paywall so I can't show it here.)

Blake et al were caught in 2009 and banned by the Jamaican Anti-Doping Commission and despite the fact that there was doubt as to whether or not DMAA was banned by WADA (it wasn't put on the prohibited list until 2010) and it was accepted that the ingestion was inadvertent, the Jamaican Anti-Doping Commission still banned Blake, Marvin Anderson & Sheri-Ann Brooks for three months as the chemical structure was similar to that of something that was on the banned list (the list contains a clause for 'associated substances'). Blake missed out on the 2009 World Championships as a result.

Not the actions you'd expect from an agency keen to turn a blind eye, or that is asleep at the wheel as Lewis seems to be keen to put across.

As well as JADCO, as Bolt has been the world number one for five years or more and the world's most high profile athlete, he's subject to out of competition testing year round by WADA (the World Anti-Doping Agency) who I know aren't backward about coming forward.

People can speculate all they want, come up with whatever theory they have that "proves" in their mind that Bolt is a doper ('I was really fast, and I could only do XX:xx, so he MUST be on drugs') but at the end of the day, unlike Lewis (and unlike some of the quite allegations made by USADA against a certain high-profile cyclist) Bolt has never tested positive and subsequently had the test covered up, or had the whiff of scandal from him. All that remains are theories from armchair warriors.

In every sport one athlete will dominate in a given era - and once every five or six eras an athlete comes along who blows every previous record out of the water. Phelps has done in it in swimming and I don't see US commentators questioning his bona fides, nor should they. He's a freak, an outlier, whatever you want to call it. I just call him 'great'.

Based on his record of testing so far, it seems Bolt is that once in a lifetime athlete. I'm a natural skeptic, but unless something happens to prove otherwise, I think we should be grateful to live in a generation where Usain Bolt is competing, like those in the 1960's and 1970's can be grateful to have seen Ali fighting in his prime, and those in the 1930's could be grateful to see Jesse Owens wiping Hitler's nose in it.

But hey, what do I know - I'm only a journalist!