Featured Image Credit: Getty Images
Topics: Usain Bolt, Athletics, Jamaica
Jack Kenmare
A new study by the University of Massachusetts has predicted how fast Usain Bolt would have run the 100m with super-spikes – and the man himself has given his take on the results.
Bolt holds the 100m world record after breaking it a total of three times.
He first set the record in May 2008 with a time of 9.72s at the Reebok Grand Prix in New York, before breaking it again in Beijing with a gold medal-winning time of 9.69s.
Advert
A short time later, Bolt set the current world record at the 2009 World Athletics Championships in Berlin, crossing the line in 9.58s.
That record still stands to this day, although research conducted by Wouter Hoogkamer and his colleagues at the University of Massachusetts suggests the Jamaican would have knocked 0.16s off that time in super-spikes.
That's right. The study, which used a series of complex equations and data from 15 athletes, suggests Bolt would have crossed the line in 9.42s if he wore the carbon-plated super-spikes.
Bolt, who is currently in Tokyo to present the medals for the 100m final at Sunday's World Athletics Championships, reacted to the study while speaking at an event in Japan.
Advert
"I fully agree," he said on Thursday. "Someone who continued after I retired was Shelly-Anne Fraser-Pryce and I saw what she did - she got faster with the spikes."
Bolt added: "I probably would have run way faster if I'd continued and if I knew that spikes would have got to that level maybe I would have, because it would have been great to compete at that level and running that fast."
Earlier this year, Bolt named Seville as the athlete he believes can finally smash his 100m world record.
Advert
Seville made headlines last month after beating Olympic champion Noah Lyles in a rain-soaked 100m final at the World Athletics Diamond League in Lausanne, Switzerland. He recorded a time of 9.87 seconds, despite the -0.3m/s headwind.
"I feel like Oblique can do it. If he can stay fit during the season and get it right, I feel he can do it, because I am sure there is something there, the ability to do it," Bolt said on The Fix Podcast, as per the Olympics website.
"Some of the time Oblique can be fragile. It’s a matter of the work situation or whatever, but if he’s doing enough work, he can do it. It’s a matter of time because he’s not missed the finals yet, so it’s just to get over the hump."
Advert
Back in 2022, scientists Polly McGuigan and Aki Salo theorised that Bolt's record could be broken in the future, and believe that a 100m time of under nine seconds may be possible to achieve.
"A combination of genetics and training would need to produce bum, thigh and calf muscles which are a little bit stronger and faster than the current best sprinters," their findings read.
"A muscle with a high proportion of large, fast twitch muscle fibres will be able to generate larger amounts of force more quickly than a muscle with a lower proportion."
They added: "It's safe to say that someone will break the nine second barrier - not necessarily in our lifetime, but it will happen one day."