Scientists have calculated Usain Bolt’s potential 100m world record if he didn’t celebrate early
Usain Bolt is one of the ultimate Olympians of all time, with many deeming the Jamaican sprinter as the greatest athlete to ever perform at the greatest show on earth. When you consider just how much better he was than his opposition, it’s hard to argue against that.
Back in 2008, he won the gold medal at the Beijing Olympics, and although it wasn’t a world record time, the performance from Bolt showed why he is just different gravy and how far ahead of his competitors he was.
He jogged over the finish line, slowing down well before the 100m mark, but he still posted a truly stupid time of 9.69 seconds. Plenty will try and fail to reach that in their career, let alone posting it after slowing down.
Usain Bolt 2008 Olympics
The entire circumstances around the 2008 triumph are incredible to say the least, not only did it become clear that his laces had somehow untied during the race, but he also revealed in his autobiography that his preparation was far from ideal for athletes.
Bolt revealed that during his time in China, he effectively lived off chicken nuggets as that was the only food that he could trust that wouldn’t impact his stomach, the local delicacies weren’t worth the risk with all the spice for the Jamaican.
All in all, the fact he could then go and win Olympic gold is mightily impressive, let alone celebrating from the 80 metre mark and jogging the final fifth of the race, Bolt truly is one of a kind.
How fast could Usain Bolt have gone?
One of the biggest what ifs has to be, what if Bolt didn’t celebrate early in that gold medal sprint, well thankfully, we now have the answer thanks to a team of physicists at the University of Oslo, led by Hans Kristian Eriksen who spoke to Phys.org.
Despite admitting there’s no genuine way of knowing the actual answer, calculations suggest the Jamaican would have registered a 9.55 second time, something that is quicker than his current world record which is still yet to be beaten well over a decade on.
It just goes to show that Bolt was in a different league to anyone else, imagine only trying for 80% of the biggest moment of your career?!
