Bolt is a phenomenon, but..

[Merlin5]

The hardest sport to medal thread at made me think about the 100m sprint.
Bolt gets worldwide acclaim and adoration. But the man is very tall, endowed with bionic legs way beyond the speed of his competitors (when in history has there ever been a 100m sprinter that can create such a gap between himself and the others), doesn't have to learn difficult skills like other athletes, doesn't have much work to do really (it's only 100m), and imo would win a medal of some colour if he never trained at all.

The guy is a rare phenomenon for sure, but do you have the kind of respect for someone like him that you would give to almost all the other sports where real skill and mastery is involved?

 

[Merlin5]

Point I'm making is that Bolt wouldn't have to work as hard as his competitors and will always get a medal because that's the way he's made.

I think you are hugely underestimating the technique in sprinting that these guys train for. There's so much more to it than "Run as fast as you can go go go!".

I know there's technique involved, but come off it, it doesn't even begin to compare to just one of the moves a diver or gymnast has to master. At the end of the day it IS just run as fast as you can go. What else do they do?

seriously idiotic post

Yeah, you shouldn't have posted it but thanks for your contribution.

 

[Merlin5]

I get the feeling my opinion is not too popular.

 

[Merlin5]

Pretty much.

You're right in that he probably wouldn't medal in anything but the 2 sprints, but then.. I'd also be right in saying a Javelin thrower would probably never medal in anything but javelin.

Unless you're Jessica Ennis

100 m hurdles
High jump
Shot put
200 m
Long jump
Javelin throw
800 m

 

[Merlin5]

Heh, not really. Ennis' best is about 47m and the dedicated javelin throwers are around 66m.

 

[Merlin5]

You may have noticed that the other 7 sprinters in the final were all a lot shorter then he was and that's because being tall is normally a hindrance for sprinters so that makes his achievements even more remarkable.

There was a fantastic documentary on the history and science of the 100m race on BBC2 a few weeks ago and as for effort in 100m you do realise that by the time a sprinter gets to about 70m their already having to slow down because their bodies simply can't keep that work rate up for the full 100m?

I'd love to see that documentary. Colin Jackson was saying something similar about 200m hurdlers, that about half way into the race lactic acid gets into their muscles and is painful and they then have to rely on other energy sources in the body to carry them through. Or something like that.

But referring to what SheepBeast said, what Bolt loses in acceleration from the start by having longer legs he seems to more than make up for in top speed. That's probably a bit like when racing cars choose to have shorter gears for maximum acceleration which can limit their top speed, versus cars that tune their gear ratios longer and achieve higher speeds but lose some acceleration. In cars that's the tradeoff and it's a choice admittedly. With Bolt, he doesn't have a choice obviously, nevertheless his 'longer gear ratio' legs obviously work for him. So what might be a hindrance for other tall sprinters doesn't seem to be much of an issue for Bolt because he's incredibly powerful anyway, it all works to his advantage.