By Louis Ritchie
The current world fastest human sprinter of all time lives in Jamaica, but the real world’s fastest and sprinter, will always live in the United States! (“I’LL EXPLAIN LATER IN THIS ARTICLE”)!
I don’t know, who decided that the world fastest human, is the person that runs the 100 meter dash but they need to rethink that conclusion. The reason I’m saying this, is that the only race that was introduced at the first ancient Olympics Games, was the 200 meter dash — was called the stade, in those days — which was the length of the Olympic Stadium.
The current 100 meter dash was never contested at any of the ancient Olympic Games! It wasn’t until 1896, the year of the first modern Olympics, that the 100 meter dash was contested. I don’t believe the 100 meter dash, should be the race that decides the world fastest human! Whoever made that decision back in the late 1800’s was wrong, in my opinion! I think whoever wins the 200 meter dash, should be crowned the world’s fastest human, just like they did, during the ancient Olympics! Any person that wins the Olympic 100 meter dash, but loses (or doesn’t run) the 200 meter dash, shouldn’t be the world fastest human.
I also think the reason that the 200 meter dash, which was the approximate length of the original Olympic stadium decided the world fastest human, was because it allowed the runners with a slower start, to catch people that had a faster start, to be caught before the finish line!
(Example) If two people ran the 100 meter dash, and person (A) reaches his top end speed at the 40 meter mark, and is running a speed of 15 miles per hour, and person (B) doesn’t reach his top speed until the 60 meter mark, but is running 18 miles per hour, who is the real fastest human? Obviously, the person running 18 miles per hour is the real fastest human, even though he might not get to the finish line of the 100 meter dash first! But if they both were running the 200 meter dash, running their top end speed, person (B) would have enough time to catch person (A) because of the longer sprint distance, and running 3 miles per hour faster! So, bottom line, person (B) running (3) miles per hour faster is moving (in terms of body length per second) faster than person (A), but because the 100 meter dash, is much shorter than the 200 meter dash, Track & Field, says, whoever wins the 100 meter dash, is the world’s fastest human, even though person (A) truly is not moving faster in terms of body length per second than person (B)!
I know Track & Field will never acknowledge the 200 meter race winner as the world fastest human, because it’s already been established since 1896, that the winner of the 100 meter dash, is considered the world fastest human! It’s too bad; they can’t attach some kind of odometer to a human being, when they’re at full speed, to see how fast a person is running, when in full flight!
A perfect example is – we’ll never know — who was the true fastest human between Michael Johnson, and Donovan Bailey, because Bailey won the 100 meter dash at the 1996 Olympics’ but wasn’t fast enough to run the 200 meter dash, which was won by Michael Johnson! (SO WHO WAS THE REAL FASTEST HUMAN)?
Another reason I’m using the example above, is that most people think, that the Cheetah, is the world’s fastest land sprinter, because it can reach a speed of over (60) miles per hour! But getting back to my point, about body lengths per second, the Cheetah is not even close to the world’s fastest sprinter!
The true WORLD FASTEST SPRINTER IN TERMS OF BODY LENGTH PER SECOND, lives in the United States! A tiny Arachnid, living in Southern California, is the world’s fastest sprinter, relative to size, called the (MITE)!
The Mite moves at 322 body lengths per second, compared to a Cheetah that moves at about 16 body lengths per second! In order for a human or a Cheetah to sprint as fast as the California mite, they would have to run, over 1300 miles per hour! Usain Bolt is the world’s fastest human on record, but in terms of body length per second, he’s sprinting at about (6) body lengths per second!
The reason I brought out this point, is because of all the millions of species there are living around the world, it’s amazing to me that the fastest sprinter of all land animals, just happens to live in the United States, which I think is ironic! THIS IS JUST FOOD FOR THOUGHT!
**The views expressed in this article are those of the author (Louis Ritchie) and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, TrackAlerts.Com