If you google the fastest man to ever live, chances are you’ll see a hundred photos and articles about Usain Bolt’s awe-inspiring 9.58 second one hundred meter dash from the 2009 IAAF (International Amateur Athletic Foundation) World Championships. Bolt is undoubtedly the greatest sprinter of his generation, holding both the one hundred meter and two hundred meter world records. At the height of his career he could make world class athletes look slow. Even in his mid-thirties and retired from sprinting he unofficially tied the nfl combine forty yard dash record. But despite all of Bolt’s athletic gifts and world records, is he really the fastest human to ever walk the planet earth? Although many articles, news clippings, and laypeople would answer in the affirmative, the answer is not so clearly discernible. It is impossible to argue that in all of modern history there have never been faster times than those run by Bolt. But while numbers don’t lie, they don’t always tell the full story. For sake of simplicity any comparisons made between Bolt and any other runners throughout history will be done on the basis of the one hundred meter dash, arguably the most well known event in sprinting.
You don’t have to go back far to find another man who was the fastest of his time. Jesse Owens was the United State’s racing king throughout the 1930’s. He cemented his legacy by winning four gold medals during the 1936 Olympics. This timing was significant because the Olympic Games took place in Berlin under the control of Adolph Hitler. Hitler and the Nazi party had just recently declared black athletes to be less capable than Aryans. This myth was completely busted, in large part due to Owens’ performance. But the most confusing thing about his races was that he didn’t run very fast at all. His gold medal performance in the one hundred meter dash was achieved with a time of 10.3 seconds. That would not have been fast enough to even qualify for the 2020 summer olympics. If someone were to stop at the numbers they would come away with the impression that runners have improved so much that the champions a century ago would lose to even the last place finisher in the Olympics today. But the numbers don’t tell the whole story.
Some of the biggest influences on a sprinter’s times are the surface on which they are running and the starting blocks, which allow for quick acceleration to top speed. Usain Bolt ran his record breaking race on a soft and bouncy modern day track which was specifically designed to limit the energy absorbed by the ground and thus allow him to run faster. But in 1936, the track was made out of cinders (ashes from burned wood) which are nowhere near as efficient at maximizing speed. Additionally, there were no starting blocks while Owens was racing. He had to dig holes in the track into which he could place his toes.
According to sports writer David Epstein, a biochemical analysis of Jesse Owens’s joints has shown that he would have been within a stride of Usain Bolt if using a modern track and equipment. But this doesn’t account for the huge advancements in nutritional and athletic science that have occurred over the last century and allow sprinters like Bolt to achieve their highest potential. Owens lived in a time where he was discriminated against at every turn, having to work while training for the Olympics due to being refused a college scholarship on account of his race. If Owens had been given Bolt’s environment, coaches, equipment, and most of all opportunities, who knows how fast he could have been. All of this is to say that the phrase numbers don’t lie is true, but they certainly can mislead and nowhere is this more clear than when looking back through the athletes of history.