In races where milliseconds count, runners can't afford any type of disadvantage. Unfortunately for this year's Olympians, the use of an old technology will give a slight advantage to the runners assigned to the inside lanes of the track.
This problem is introduced because "loud guns" are still employed at the Olympics Games. These are starting guns that fire blank cartridges, creating a loud "bang" to alert athletes of the start.
Although sound travels through air very quickly, it does have a finite speed, meaning that the runners closest to the gun will hear the blast first. This becomes especially significant in races such as the 4x100m relay, where the starters are staggered around the first turn of the track. Scientists have calculated that the sound of the gun in such a race will reach the outermost runner 0.150 seconds after it reaches the innermost runner. This is a big deal in sprinting - amounting to a meter or more at the finish line. Furthermore, the sound of the gun is louder when it arrives at the closer runners' ears. Scientists at the University of Alberta have found that a louder signal is more likely to lead to a startle response in runners, lowering their reaction time by up to 0.018 seconds.
Most modern track events now place loudspeakers behind the blocks of each runner. These loudspeakers are designed to all give a tone at precisely the same moment, and the gun that the starting official holds is actually silent, producing no sound of its own. This technique guarantees that each runner will hear the start tone at the same moment as the other runners. Although these loudspeakers are employed at the Olympics, a silent gun is not used, and researchers have found that the runners actually respond to the sound of the gun when both are available.
The effects of this phenomenon were confirmed at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Researchers at the University of Indiana found that the runners in the outside lanes were slower out of the blocks by the amount predicted by the speed of sound.
The problem could reach even further than expected, as a bad start will often affect an athlete's entire race. Runners may tense up and perform worse after a relatively poor start.
The International Association of Athletics Federations says is is aware of this problem and is developing new standards to correct it. Yet, amazingly, it sees no need to make emergency changes before the Beijing Olympics.
The average human walking speed is in the neighborhood of 3 mph (4.8 km/h). How fast do you think you could run at a full sprint? 10 mph? 15 mph? What speed could you average over 26.2 miles?
I've been wondering how various world records in running would translate to my colloquial speed unit of MPH, so to appease my own curiosity I've compiled the tables below.
Men's World Records Translated Into Average Speeds
Event
Record
Athlete
mph
ft/s
km/h
m/s
60 m (indoor)
6.39 s
Maurice Green
21.00
30.81
33.80
9.39
100 m
9.72 s
Usain Bolt
23.02
33.76
37.04
10.29
200 m
19.32 s
Michael Johnson
23.15
33.96
37.26
10.35
400 m
43.18 s
Michael Johnson
20.71
30.38
33.34
9.26
800 m
1:41.11
Wilson Kipketer
17.69
25.95
28.48
7.91
1000 m
2:11.96
Noah Ngeny
16.96
24.87
27.29
7.58
1500 m
3:26.00
Hicham El Geerrouj
16.28
23.88
26.21
7.28
Mile
3:43.13
Hicham El Geerrouj
16.13
23.65
25.96
7.21
5000 m
12:37.35
Kenenisa Bekele
14.76
21.65
23.76
6.60
10000 m
26:17.53
Kenenisa Bekele
14.18
20.80
22.82
6.34
Half Marathon
58:33
Samuel Kamau Wanjiru
13.44
19.72
21.64
6.01
Marathon
2:04:26
Haile Gebrselassie
12.64
18.54
20.34
5.65
110 m hurdles
12.87 s
Dayron Robles
19.10
28.02
30.74
8.54
400 m hurdles
46.78 s
Kevin Young
19.13
28.05
30.78
8.55
4x100 m relay
37.40 s
Mike Marsh, Leroy Burrell, Dennis Mitchell, Carl Lewis -also- Jon Drummond, Andre Cason, Dennis Mitchell, Leroy Burrell
23.94
35.10
38.52
10.70
4x200 m relay
1:18.68
Mike Marsh, Leroy Burrell, Floyd Heard, Carl Lewis
22.75
33.37
36.61
10.17
4x400 m relay
2:54.20
Jerome Young, Antonio Pettigrew, Tyree Washington, Michael Johnson
20.54
30.12
33.05
9.18
4x800 m relay
7:02.43
Joseph Mutua, William Yiampoy, Ismael Kombich, Wilfred Bungei
16.96
24.87
27.29
7.58
Womens's World Records Translated Into Average Speeds
Event
Record
Athlete
mph
ft/s
km/h
m/s
60 m (indoor)
6.92
Irina Privalova
19.39
28.44
31.21
8.67
100 m
10.49 s
Florence Griffith Joyner
21.32
31.27
34.31
9.53
200 m
21.34 s
Florence Griffith Joyner
20.96
30.74
33.73
9.37
400 m
47.60 s
Marita Koch
18.79
27.60
30.24
8.40
800 m
1:53.28
Jarmila Kratochvílová
15.79
23.16
25.42
7.06
1000 m
2:28.98
Svetlana Masterkova
15.01
22.01
24.16
6.71
1500 m
3:50.46
Qu Yunxia
14.56
21.36
23.44
6.51
Mile
4:12.56
Svetlana Masterkova
14.25
20.90
22.93
6.37
5000 m
14:11.15
Tirunesh Dibaba
13.13
19.26
21.13
5.87
10000 m
29:31.78
Wang Junxia
12.62
18.50
20.30
5.64
Half Marathon
1:06:25
Lornah Kiplagat
11.83
17.36
19.04
5.29
Marathon
2:15:25
Paula Radcliffe
11.61
17.03
18.68
5.19
100 m hurdles
12.21 s
Yordanka Donkova
18.32
26.87
29.48
8.19
400 m hurdles
52.34 s
Yuliya Pechonkina
17.09
25.07
27.50
7.64
4x100 m relay
41.37 s
Silke Gladisch, Sabine Rieger, Ingrid Auerswald, Marlies Göhr
21.63
31.73
34.81
9.67
4x200 m relay
1:27.46
LaTasha Jenkins, LaTasha Colander- Richardson, Nanceen Perry, Marion Jones
20.45
29.99
32.90
9.14
4x400 m relay
3:15.17
Tatyana Ledovskaya, Olga Nazarova, Mariya Pinigina, Olga Bryzgina
Its's a bit surpising that the men's 200m record produces a faster average speed than the 60m and the 100m records. I expect this is partly because accelerating at the start takes some time and partly because Michael Johnson owns.
Every time the Olympics roll around, there is plenty of buzz about new world records being set on the world's stage. Despite a decade's passage since Michael Johnson was on the top of his game, he still holds dominant world records in the 200 meters and 400 meters, and he shares the 4x400-meter world record (videos below).
Michael Johnson 200m World Record
1996 - Atlanta Olympics - 19.32 seconds - Johnson DOMINATES
Michael Johnson 400m World Record
1999 - Sevilla, Spain - 43.18 seconds - Johnson DOMINATES
USA 4x400m World Record
1998 - New York City - 2:54.20 - Jerome Young, Antonio Pettigrew, Tyree Washington, and Michael Johnson DOMINATE
This is an old video clip, but well worth a revisit. Maurice green recorded a wind-aided 9.86 seconds, winning the 100-meter event at the 2004 Home Depot Invitational in California.
You can't call him humble, but he did win. A lot. This is the same man who had "GOAT" tattooed on his arm - an acronym for "Greatest Of All Time". Greene announced in February that he was retiring at age 33 and not competing at Beijing. His indoor 60m world record (6.39 s) still stands.
