Usain Bolt:”I Think He Will Beat My Record”
With sweeps in both the 100m and 200m at last year’s World Athletics Championships, American sprinting is entering another golden age.
But just how close are they to breaking the longstanding records of the greatest sprinter ever: Usain Bolt? Olympics.com compares the times side-by-side.
It’s been 13 years since Usain Bolt set the men’s 100m and 200m world records at the 2009 World Athletics Championships in Berlin, Germany.
Since then, the times of 9.58 and 19.19 seconds have been out of reach of every sprinter who has attempted to get close to them, with the great Jamaican going on to attain mythical status within the sport of athletics.
However, with last year’s World Athletics Championships seeing USA sweeps in both of the sprint distances, the American team are in hot form and hankering for the sort of times that would see them challenge and perhaps even surpass the sprint world records that have stood for well over a decade.
Unlike in the time of Bolt who flourished over 100m and 200m, the US sprint team has more specialists in their ranks, with the likes of Fred Kerley and Trayvon Bromell making the 100m distance their own, and Noah Lyles, Erriyon Knighton and Michael Norman excelling over the half-lap race.
But just how close are these rapid Americans to the times of Bolt? And which of them has the greatest chance of breaking his world records? Find out everything you need to know below.
While Bolt occupies the top three places on the list of fastest-ever 100m times, three current American sprinters sit joint 15th on the list with times of 9.76 seconds – Fred Kerley, Trayvon Bromell and Christian Coleman.
With multiple marks in the top 15 set by the same athletes, these three Americans are the joint-sixth fastest men to have ever raced the blue ribband sprint event.
Bolt has set three times under 9.70 seconds, with 9.58, 9.63 and 9.69. The only other men to have dipped across the line in sub-9.70 are Tyson Gay of the USA and Yohan Blake of Jamaica in 2009 and 2012, respectively.
The fastest times of Kerley, Coleman and Bromell are all on par with Bolt’s fifth-fastest mark in the event, leaving them 0.18 seconds away from the world record.
However, while it may seem like there’s a mountain to climb for any of them to reach 9.58, it is the form of Kerley that is most impressive a year out from the Olympic Games Paris 2024.
Every one of the reigning world champion’s top 10 times have been set since 2021 – the year in which he switched from the 400m to the shorter sprinting distances.
Three of his times would also have made it into Bolt’s top 10, compared to two of his teammate Bromell’s.