From all ailments and bad mood the ancient Greeks gave one recipe - running! Among animals, the cheetah is the best sprinter, it can reach speeds of over 100 km per hour, but it can be kept in seconds. An ostrich can run for an entire hour in the desert at a speed of 60 km per hour. But since we belong to the human species, we are primarily interested in, and which of the people can run the fastest.
100 meters - the best distance
In running, there are many distances, including marathon (42 km 195 meters), daily running and other types ... But only one of them captures everyone on the planet, and not only lovers of the sports queen - athletics. This is a 100 meter run. The evolution of this distance does not know, in fact, the beginning, there will be no limit to it. Now, not only athletes are working on improving speed at this distance, but also a whole chain of people - from medical schools to bookmakers. After all, this is the most prestigious discipline in athletics.
We will briefly review the gradation of growth in results from the time of the first Olympics of our time in Athens in 1896 to the present day. Given that until 1975 the results were recorded with a manual stopwatch, they will not be as accurate as they are now.
The first records among men
At the first Olympics in Athens, the result of the winner of Thomas Burke from the USA by 100 meters was only 12 seconds exactly, which is now available even to beginner school-age athletes. But then the Olympics was really with the motto - "The main thing is not victory, but participation."
But the prestige of the distance and the title of the fastest person on the planet makes us chase the long-awaited victory at this distance. And after sixteen years, in 1912 in Stockholm, Donald Lippincott from the same United States of America sets a world record at a distance of 100 meters - 10.6 seconds.
Later, athletes truncated hundredths and tenths to overcome the threshold of ten seconds, and the first to run a distance of 100 meters in 10 seconds was exactly Armin Hari from Germany in Zurich in 1960. Now everyone was looking forward to, who will exchange ten seconds for a hundred-meter race? It took exactly eight years. In 1968, the athlete from the United States, Jim Hines, was the first in the world to submit to this line of ten seconds. He overcame 100 meters, set a world record by running a distance in 9.9 seconds. Jim Hines won the 100m at the Mexico City Olympics the same year, running in 9.5 seconds.
World records in the nineties
Then came the eighties and nineties. Here, the palm of leadership was shared by athletes from Canada and the United States. Ben Johnson's legendary breakthrough in this discipline, at the Seoul Olympics in 1988, with an incredible result at that time - 9.79 seconds - took everyone by surprise, but due to the discovery of doping, the athlete was disqualified and the medal was transferred to the legendary Carl Lewis from the USA who covered the distance in 9.92 seconds. Over time, the athlete improved the figure at the 1991 World Cup (Tokyo) to 9.86 seconds in the 100 meter race. The world record has reached a new mark.
The result of 9.8 seconds was the first, and so far the last from the USA, Maurice Green overcame, having run the distance in 9.79 seconds. His compatriots made attempts to improve the results of the hundred-meter race. Tim Montgomery 9.78 Seconds and 9.77 seconds Justin Getlin, but due to positive doping tests, their world results were canceled. Later, athletes from Jamaica entered the arena, and to this day their world records remain open and deserve respect.
Usain Bolt - record holder at a distance of 100 meters
From 2005 to 2007, Asafa Powell repeated his own world record three times - 9.77 seconds. - and brought the result to 9.74 seconds. at the championship in Rieti. Young and yet unbeaten in this discipline, the lightning man, as fans called him, Usain Bolt from Jamaica in New York in 2008 sets his first world record at 100 meters (men) - 9.72 seconds. All this happened before the eyes of local residents - athletes from the United States, who until today can not overtake the legend of the Jamaican athletics.
Making his way beyond the unimaginable seconds at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, he overcomes a new milestone - 9.69 seconds - and in 2009 he beats his own result in running 100 meters. A 9.58-second world record set by a Jamaican athlete, to this day no one can beat. Usain Bolt made this gift to himself 5 days before his 24th birthday.
The athlete Valery Borzov, who is the only white-skinned athlete to win at the 1972 Olympics in Munich in sprint disciplines of one hundred and two hundred meters, deserves respect.
100 meters run. World record: women
The beautiful half of humanity began to record world records for a manual stopwatch for the first time at competitions in Prague in 1922, where an athlete from Czechoslovakia, Maria Meizlikova, showed a result of 13.6 seconds. In the same year in Paris, her record was broken by the British Mary Lines, who ran in 12.8 seconds.
Electronic timing began to count women's records in this discipline, starting with the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. Then the champion became Wyomia Tayes from the USA with a result of 11.08 seconds. The first was exchanged for 11 seconds by an athlete from the GDR - Marlies Olsner, who ran in 10.88 seconds. (Dresden, 1977). Evelyn Ashforth from the USA brought the world achievement to 10.79, and later to 10.76 seconds. The bold point in the global achievement of women's 100m put the American Florence Griffith-Joyner in Indianapolis in 1988 with a result of 10.49 seconds. This female world record remains unchallenged to this day.