Usain Bolt

vilkrang wrote:

DJ_Smerk wrote:F*ck me. Bolt is a machine. I didn't see the race, but 200m in 19.20 is SICK!

Get on the BBC site, they are still replaying it.

Bugger missed the highlights. I'll have to catch it on Youtube in the next half hour...

Shoeshine wrote:I think my reaction is best summed up

I'd go more along these lines:

Shoeshine wrote:

vilkrang wrote:

Henry wrote:WOW.

Greatest athlete on the planet at the moment.

You mean ever.

I mean seriously, you have to bear in mind that Michael Johnson was in a completely different league to everyone at the time and any athlete around now, other than Bolt.

There is clear daylight between Michael Johnson and every other 200m runner ever other than Bolt. The fact there is now daylight between Bolt and Michael Johnson is just utterly ridiculous.

Ah well not really. It's never fair to compare people in different eras, you can only talk about who is utterly dominant in any given time. Otherwise you're saying that all the British 100m runners of today are better than Jesse Owens and that's palpable nonsense.

Really hate it when people say "it's never fair to compare people of different eras".

OBVIOUSLY it isn't as simple as "British 100m runners run faster than Jesse Owens so they are better", I'm not a f*cking idiot, but that doesn't mean that it's wrong to even debate it.

Did he run 19.19 or 19.20? I'm getting conflicting reports.

Incidentally the circumstances with Jesse Owens will never be replicated so it's impossible to know how athletes of today would respond.

19.19 Henry.

It was 19.20 as he crossed the line, but then they dropped it to 19.19 a few seconds later!

vilkrang wrote:

Shoeshine wrote:

vilkrang wrote:

Henry wrote:WOW.

Greatest athlete on the planet at the moment.

You mean ever.

I mean seriously, you have to bear in mind that Michael Johnson was in a completely different league to everyone at the time and any athlete around now, other than Bolt.

There is clear daylight between Michael Johnson and every other 200m runner ever other than Bolt. The fact there is now daylight between Bolt and Michael Johnson is just utterly ridiculous.

Ah well not really. It's never fair to compare people in different eras, you can only talk about who is utterly dominant in any given time. Otherwise you're saying that all the British 100m runners of today are better than Jesse Owens and that's palpable nonsense.

Really hate it when people say "it's never fair to compare people of different eras".

OBVIOUSLY it isn't as simple as "British 100m runners run faster than Jesse Owens so they are better", I'm not a f*cking idiot, but that doesn't mean that it's wrong to even debate it.

People say it because it's true. Yes, it's fun to debate it, but you can't ever come up with a meaningful answer except inasmuch as pub arguments are entertaining.

This bloke is a phenomenon.

holcs wrote:

Shoeshine wrote:I think my reaction is best summed up

I'd go more along these lines:

Give you that one.

Shoeshine wrote:

vilkrang wrote:

Shoeshine wrote:

vilkrang wrote:

Henry wrote:WOW.

Greatest athlete on the planet at the moment.

You mean ever.

I mean seriously, you have to bear in mind that Michael Johnson was in a completely different league to everyone at the time and any athlete around now, other than Bolt.

There is clear daylight between Michael Johnson and every other 200m runner ever other than Bolt. The fact there is now daylight between Bolt and Michael Johnson is just utterly ridiculous.

Ah well not really. It's never fair to compare people in different eras, you can only talk about who is utterly dominant in any given time. Otherwise you're saying that all the British 100m runners of today are better than Jesse Owens and that's palpable nonsense.

Really hate it when people say "it's never fair to compare people of different eras".

OBVIOUSLY it isn't as simple as "British 100m runners run faster than Jesse Owens so they are better", I'm not a f*cking idiot, but that doesn't mean that it's wrong to even debate it.

People say it because it's true. Yes, it's fun to debate it, but you can't ever come up with a meaningful answer except inasmuch as pub arguments are entertaining.

It's not true, it's true that it's not an exact science, it's not true that it's impossible to debate it, unless your mind can't cope with something that isn't an exact science.

To Bolt! Cheers!

vilkrang wrote:

Shoeshine wrote:

vilkrang wrote:

Shoeshine wrote:

vilkrang wrote:

Henry wrote:WOW.

Greatest athlete on the planet at the moment.

You mean ever.

I mean seriously, you have to bear in mind that Michael Johnson was in a completely different league to everyone at the time and any athlete around now, other than Bolt.

There is clear daylight between Michael Johnson and every other 200m runner ever other than Bolt. The fact there is now daylight between Bolt and Michael Johnson is just utterly ridiculous.

Ah well not really. It's never fair to compare people in different eras, you can only talk about who is utterly dominant in any given time. Otherwise you're saying that all the British 100m runners of today are better than Jesse Owens and that's palpable nonsense.

Really hate it when people say "it's never fair to compare people of different eras".

OBVIOUSLY it isn't as simple as "British 100m runners run faster than Jesse Owens so they are better", I'm not a f*cking idiot, but that doesn't mean that it's wrong to even debate it.

People say it because it's true. Yes, it's fun to debate it, but you can't ever come up with a meaningful answer except inasmuch as pub arguments are entertaining.

It's not true, it's true that it's not an exact science, it's not true that it's impossible to debate it, unless your mind can't cope with something that isn't an exact science.

No, I said it's true that it's not fair to compare people of different eras - though I agree it's a good pub debate. And it isn't - for the Jesse Owens reason. You can't say that Bolt is better than Carl Lewis; you can say he's faster than him, but Carl Lewis was a giant of his time. I do find it a bit hard to believe that had Lewis been born at the same time as Bolt, he'd be half a second behind him.

Greatest athlete/sportsman to ever come out of the Caribbean? I guess only Garry Sobers and Malcolm Marshall would be close.

Cool Runnings were pretty good.

Shoeshine wrote:

vilkrang wrote:

Shoeshine wrote:

vilkrang wrote:

Shoeshine wrote:

vilkrang wrote:

Henry wrote:WOW.

Greatest athlete on the planet at the moment.

You mean ever.

I mean seriously, you have to bear in mind that Michael Johnson was in a completely different league to everyone at the time and any athlete around now, other than Bolt.

There is clear daylight between Michael Johnson and every other 200m runner ever other than Bolt. The fact there is now daylight between Bolt and Michael Johnson is just utterly ridiculous.

Ah well not really. It's never fair to compare people in different eras, you can only talk about who is utterly dominant in any given time. Otherwise you're saying that all the British 100m runners of today are better than Jesse Owens and that's palpable nonsense.

Really hate it when people say "it's never fair to compare people of different eras".

OBVIOUSLY it isn't as simple as "British 100m runners run faster than Jesse Owens so they are better", I'm not a f*cking idiot, but that doesn't mean that it's wrong to even debate it.

People say it because it's true. Yes, it's fun to debate it, but you can't ever come up with a meaningful answer except inasmuch as pub arguments are entertaining.

It's not true, it's true that it's not an exact science, it's not true that it's impossible to debate it, unless your mind can't cope with something that isn't an exact science.

No, I said it's true that it's not fair to compare people of different eras - though I agree it's a good pub debate. And it isn't - for the Jesse Owens reason. You can't say that Bolt is better than Carl Lewis; you can say he's faster than him, but Carl Lewis was a giant of his time. I do find it a bit hard to believe that had Lewis been born at the same time as Bolt, he'd be half a second behind him.

It's not fair to compare people of different eras purely due to the times and distances they post. You can compare their relative greatness on the other hand.

Carl Lewis certainly was a giant of his time but he didn't smash records by the same sort of distance that Bolt is doing.

Incidentally I find it ironic that someone who likes to frequently get into debates is saying "you can't debate this" .

vilkrang wrote:It's not fair to compare people of different eras purely due to the times and distances they post. You can compare their relative greatness on the other hand.

Carl Lewis certainly was a giant of his time but he didn't smash records by the same sort of distance that Bolt is doing.

Oh indeed. Relative greatness I have no problem with. In the case of Lewis, he also did the long jump of course, which is also an extraordinary achievement. And then you have the way Daley Thompson and Jurgen Hingsen pushed each other to extraordinary things, destroying any other competitor in the process. And Jonathan Edwards, of course. He even produced a wind assisted jump of 18.47 which is utterly incredible - because if you're talking relative terms, you can't take it back to zero, you have to use, say, 15m as your base.

vilkrang wrote:Incidentally I find it ironic that someone who likes to frequently get into debates is saying "you can't debate this" .

Yeah Jonathan Edwards was some what of a freak as well. Did he ever try the long jump?

I keep watching replays of this run. The most insane thing is that he seems to visibly slow up on the final straight, like he is tired.

Destroying world records when one is tired is rather a good effort.

vilkrang wrote:Yeah Jonathan Edwards was some what of a freak as well. Did he ever try the long jump?

Dunno. Triple jump is much more technical I suppose, so he may have gone for that because he wasn't that fast a runner.

By the way - if you want a laugh, Youtube the Athens 4x100 relay and listen to the American commentatorys absolutely certain of their victory until about 50m from the line where they realise they've been beaten by the British.

Replay for anyone that missed it:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/athletics/8213036.stm

vilkrang wrote:Replay for anyone that missed it:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/athletics/8213036.stm

Nice Work Vilks.