Fastest man of all time

As a former sprinter in college, I've always loved the 100m dash. There's nothing like having the ability to say, "I''m the fastest man in the world." Yesterday, at the Carl Icahn Stadium (literally right in my backyard), Usain Bolt broke the world record and ran the fastest 100m dash time in history (9.72 seconds)! What's even more amazing is he is only 21 years old and is 6'5". Let the steroid allegations begin....thanks Marion.

I've heard of Tyson Gay (gold medal winner in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay at the 2007 World Championships) and Shawn Crawford (gold medal winner in 200m in 2004 Olympics) and Wallace Spearmon (second fastest 200m @19.65 only behind the track god) and Asafa Powell (former world record holder at 9.74). These are world class athletes and Usain made it look like a race in elementary school. He's tall, long, and has great turnover. If he develops a better start out of the blocks, he could run a sub 9.70 in the next couple of years.

He may very well be the fastest human ever to live. Michael, we know you're worried. But I guess records are meant to be broken.

How much lower can the time go? Here's the progression of the 100m over time.

Time	Athlete	Nat	Location of race	Date
9.95	Jim Hines	United States	Mexico City, Mexico	October 14, 1968
9.93	Calvin Smith	United States	Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA	July 3, 1983
	Carl Lewis	United States	Rome, Italy	August 30, 1987
			Zurich, Switzerland	August 17, 1988
9.83 [3]	Ben Johnson	Canada	Rome, Italy	August 30, 1987
9.79 [3]	Ben Johnson	Canada	Seoul, South Korea	September 24, 1988
9.92	Carl Lewis	United States	Seoul, South Korea	September 24, 1988
9.90	Leroy Burrell	United States	New York, New York, USA	June 14, 1991
9.86	Carl Lewis	United States	Tokyo, Japan	August 25, 1991
9.85	Leroy Burrell	United States	Lausanne, Switzerland	July 6, 1994
9.84	Donovan Bailey	Canada	Atlanta, Georgia, USA	July 27, 1996
9.79	Maurice Greene	United States	Athens, Greece	June 16, 1999
9.78[4]	Tim Montgomery	United States	Charléty, Paris, France	September 14, 2002
9.77	Asafa Powell	Jamaica	Athens, Greece	June 14, 2005
	Justin Gatlin	United States	Doha, Qatar	May 12, 2006
	Asafa Powell[5]	Jamaica	Gateshead, England	June 11, 2006
	Asafa Powell	Jamaica	Zurich, Switzerland	August 18, 2006
9.74	Asafa Powell	Jamaica	Rieti, Italy	September 9, 2007
9.72	Usain Bolt[6]	Jamaica	New York City, New York	May 31, 2008

2008 Jamaica Invitational 100m Male Usain Bolt 9.76 Sunday, 04 May 2008


2007 Jamaican National Championships 100m Male Usain Bolt 19.75 Sunday,24 June 2007