From two years ago, and the emergence of an hegemonic jamaican sprint, able of an unseen domination and trusting almost every titles and records (Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell for the men, Shelly-Ann Fraser, Carmelita Jeter and Kerron Stewart for the women), doping rumours have started to rise, and have even increased after four jamaican sprinters failed a doping test.
My aim was to have an objective view of the jamaican sprint phenomenon, studying the actual available data.
To start with, I wanted to study the progression of the 100m word record with respect to time (click to enlarge ... the diagram):
Blue points are performances recorded with manual timing, while red points denote performances recorded with modern electric timing (this system has been introduced in 1968, short before the Mexico Olympic games).
The diagram shows clearly that in a bit less than one century (from 1912 to 2009), the record has lowered by one second. The American Don Lippincott (10"6 in 1912) would be more than 10 meters away from Usain Bolt, running 9"58 at the Berlin world championships in 2009.
The rather fast progression of the world record between 1912 and 1968 may be explained by the massification of the track 'n field, and the improvement of the training methods.
From 1968, the progression is slower, Carl Lewis running in 1988 only 3/100 faster than Jim Hines (9'92"), 20 years before.
The 1990's will see a new progression, thanks to Lewis, Burrel, Bailey, and above all Maurice Greene (9"79), archetypal runner of the body-building era.
2005 is the start of the jamaican domination era, with Asafa Powell setting a new WR. This new improvement cycle is finding its (temporary ?) apogee in Usain Bolt's amazing 9'58" on Berlin track.
Time data source : http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/100_m%C3%A8tres_(athl%C3%A9tisme)
2D plot generated with Topcat
