In honor of Usain Bolt’s newest Olympic gold metal in the 100m, I thought it would be interest to post this New York Times video comparing just how fast he is compared to the runners of the past. Given that we now have a much greater understanding of nutrition, fitness training, and composition of track materials are better and faster, it’s not really “fair” to compare a runner like Usain Bolt to the runners of the past like Jesse Owens or even Carl Lewis. 
It’s similar to comparing someone like Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire to Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle. Babe Ruth, for instance, smoked everyday and drank like a fish (some times even during games!)
The point being, is that when you watch a video like this you have to consider how far we’ve come with ourselves as a species and think about how far we’ll be four years from now… Either that, or our new found evolution is a fluke and Bolt’s speed is because of one of the following: 1) On going nuclear radiation has caused humans to develop into strong faster predators, 2) An increased consumption of hormone injected chicken has caused use to develop more muscle mass, or 3) Maybe it’s just more people have just become more aware of the Olympics and countries governments want to spend more money on training their athletes so that people come and visit their country… hmmm…
