One of the nice parts of having a baby during the Olympics is that there's always something interesting on TV at 3am.
I had posted a visual representation of the winners of past years vs the winners today last week, and yesterday I saw an even better one. It won't embed, but it's worth a watch. It focuses primarily on Usian Bolt's 100m dash time. Apparently the gold medalist from 1896 still would have had 65 feet left to run when Bolt finished.
Additionally, the bronze medalist from 1896 would be finishing on par with today's record setting 8 year olds. It's interesting stuff, even if (like the AVI) you believe there's chicanery involved.
I'm kind of amazed that the long-jump (one of the other categories, under a link at the bottom of the page) doesn't have the same trend as the 100m dash and the 100m freestyle.
ReplyDeleteThat is, the best long-jump is from 1968. There is a trend towards improvement since the 1890s, but the trend isn't as steep, nor does it peak in 2008/2012.