One of my former students at the University of Arkansas, Tyson Gay, is currently the fastest man in the world in 2007. He recently ran the 100-meter dash in 9.84 seconds into a headwind.Not only is this the fastest time in the 100-meter dash by anyone in the world this year, it ranks as the second-fastest time ever run into a headwind. The fastest time ever run into a headwind was by Maurice Green in 2001 when he ran a 9.82 into a headwind of 0.45 mph. Tyson ran his into a wind of 1.12 mph.
Tyson took my Western Civ II class in the spring of 2005. I gave the class the assignment of reading the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, in order to illustrate the Romantic time period. One of the interesting aspects of the novel is the way that Shelley actually portrays her monster, in contrast to the way the monster is perceived in popular culture. In our class discussion we talked about the monster’s characteristics. Tyson raised his hand; the thing which stuck out in his mind, naturally enough, was how fast the monster was:
“As I said this, I suddenly beheld the figure of a man, at some distance, advancing towards me with superhuman speed. He bounded over the crevices in the ice, among which I had walked with caution; …” (Frankenstein, Chapter 10)
Tyson Gay knows a thing or two about speed himself.
3 comments:
ok so thats pretty awesome that you taught the current fastest man in the world... and its ridiculous that he ran 9.84 into that significant of a head wind, wow. I wish though that the media would realize that the fastest man should be the man that is the fastest. Sprinters reach much higher speeds running the 200 than they do running the 100. Michael Johnson ran his second 100m in 9.20 (19.32 200m WR in 1996)! He also reached a top speed of 24.86mph!
I also find it very impressive that Tyson Gay ran the 2nd fastest 200m time in history: 19.62 (which would have beat MJ's previous record of 19.66)... oh yeah he did that into a head wind also: 0.3mps... absolutely crazy.
I bet he copies MJ's form.
Good post!
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Justin Bland!!! MJ's 2nd 100 was 9.2 because he was sprinting at the start of it! A sprinter will hit top spe at round 60-70m into the race. Asafa powell ran a 8.70 last leg at the olympics. 24.86 is nowhere near the speeds which are shown in the 100m (27-29mph)
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