Who is the fastest man alive?

[Byron Bitz]

Many people have been calling Jacobs the new fastest man alive after he just won the 100m gold with a time of 9.80 but Christian Coleman ran a 9.76 at the world championships so shouldn’t he still be considered the fastest man alive? He would have been the favourite if he was allowed to compete in these Olympics.

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[serp]

Might still be retired Usain Bolt to be honest.

 

[SPF6ty9]

Many people have been calling Jacobs the new fastest man alive after he just won the 100m gold with a time of 9.80 but Christian Coleman ran a 9.76 at the world championships so shouldn’t he still be considered the fastest man alive? He would have been the favourite if he was allowed to compete in these Olympics.

If he wanted to compete he should have shown up for his drug tests. Makes him look like either an idiot or a doper. By the only fair metric, it's Jacobs.

Bolt? He didn't even win his last 100m final when he was actively training. He'd get smoked if he jumped into a race right now. Could be interesting if he dedicated himself to training full time.

 

[Foppberg]

Bolt.

 

[discostu]

If he wanted to compete he should have shown up for his drug tests. Makes him look like either an idiot or a doper. By the only fair metric, it's Jacobs.

Bolt? He didn't even win his last 100m final when he was actively training. He'd get smoked if he jumped into a race right now. Could be interesting if he dedicated himself to training full time.

Agreed. It's a race, not a time trial, and the Olympics is where this gets settled.

 

[rosscow]

America says it's whoever wins the 200m. Well at least they did when Canada was winning gold in the 100m

 

[Byron Bitz]

Agreed. It's a race, not a time trial, and the Olympics is where this gets settled.

I’ll bet my house Coleman smokes Jacobs at the world championships, Degrasse will probably beat him as well.

 

[Vasilevskiy]

Coleman not showing up tells you all you need to know

 

[SUX2BU]

Bolt

 

[Fighter]

Bolt

 

[bobholly39]

Usain Bolt. Probably - but to be honest I doubt he can come out and run a 100M today faster than any of these guys. He needs training and to be in shape, but give him even just a few weeks of solid training and he'd do it.

Outside of him - officially, the title of world's fastest man has always gone to the 100M champ at the Olympics (it's bigger than the world championships + more recent) - and so he earns the title fair and square. I think De Grasse is actually faster though - wish I could see a rematch between the 2.

But who deserves the title? Jacobs., even though I think De Grasse is faster

 

[NyQuil]

I read an interesting article about the “top speed reached by a human” and apparently Gatlin did a thing with giant fans for a tailwind of +20m/s boost for a Japanese tv show.

Justin Gatlin 'Breaks' Usain Bolt's World 100M Record on Japanese Show 'Kasupe!'

The article also brought up running downhill as another option.

 

[Maestro84]

Honestly if Usain didn’t retire after 2016 I wouldn’t rule him out of winning gold again this year despite his age

 

[tmlms13]

We should do a test with DeGrasse and Jacobs.

DeGrasse = 100 & 200 specialist
Jacobs = 60 & 100 specialist

My proposal: Would be good for some $$ advertising and such. I say do a series of races. 80, 100, 150. Best 2 of 3 wins the distance. Best 2 of 3 distances wins the Title. This would probably take a couple months over the summer so lots attention.

Figure out location logistics later.

 

[NyQuil]

I read some comment at how Andre De Grasse runs faster than Connor McDavid skates.

I know he’s around 42-43 km/h and during play you’ll see McDavid in the mid to late 30s km/h.

Hows that for a charity competition?

Logically I have to think if you gave McDavid 100 m of open straight ice he’d win?

 

[Ceremony]

Honestly if Usain didn’t retire after 2016 I wouldn’t rule him out of winning gold again this year despite his age

He finished 3rd in the world championship final in 2017. He wasn't winning (even in a weak field) three years later, never mind four.

 

[JJ68]

I have always thought that the true fastest man alive is whoever can attain the best km/h or mp/h speed.

If you win the 100 or 200, great...you're the fastest guy to be able to run at those made up distances.

But I personally would prefer watching a system where you clock a man running at full speed for as long as he can until his speed dips. You then take his highest peak speed and clock that, and voila.....you have your fastest man alive.

It would probably still have been Bolt for all those years but that's how it should be properly gauged.

A cheetah is the fastest animal alive but there are some that could beat it to a finish line if you made them go certain distances.

 

[alko]

Ben Johnson

 

[bobholly39]

He finished 3rd in the world championship final in 2017. He wasn't winning (even in a weak field) three years later, never mind four.

He lost to Gatlin who was 35 years old. Gatlin who probably makes Tokyo at 38 yrs old last year.

Bolt is 34 today.

He's absolutely not too old to win. 2017 was just an off race. If he wanted it badly enough and committed to training, age wouldn't hold him back

 

[JackSlater]

Ben Johnson

Well he is a cheetah after all.

World's fastest man is just some designation they gave to the winner of the 100m at the Olympics, not some technical designation. It only changed when wormy Costas tried to play around until it was a American rather than Donovan Bailey. It's Jacobs by what the term has been used to represent, regardless of whether other people may be faster by different metrics on different days.

 

[SPF6ty9]

He lost to Gatlin who was 35 years old. Gatlin who probably makes Tokyo at 38 yrs old last year.

Bolt is 34 today.

He's absolutely not too old to win. 2017 was just an off race. If he wanted it badly enough and committed to training, age wouldn't hold him back

Bolt should have lost to Gatlin in 2016 as well, Gatlin just tied up badly at the end and lost it.

I'm not a big fan of these athlete woulda / coulda / shoulda to be honest because they usually look at the positive characteristics of the athlete and pretend the negatives don't exist. Bolt has the physical talent to come back and be competitive, but being a sprinter is more than just a pair of legs. Bolt was always lazy, other than 08, 09, and 12 he basically just did enough to get by. In 2011 he likely purposely false started at World's because he knew he hadn't done enough to beat Blake in the 100m.

So yes, Bolt has the physical talent to compete today if he wanted to. But he's also way too lazy, and that's part of the package with him as well, you can't just pretend that doesn't exist.

Jacobs is the worlds fastest man. And if it was measured by top speed, then it might be Noah Lyles.

 

[bobholly39]

Bolt should have lost to Gatlin in 2016 as well, Gatlin just tied up badly at the end and lost it.

I'm not a big fan of these athlete woulda / coulda / shoulda to be honest because they usually look at the positive characteristics of the athlete and pretend the negatives don't exist. Bolt has the physical talent to come back and be competitive, but being a sprinter is more than just a pair of legs. Bolt was always lazy, other than 08, 09, and 12 he basically just did enough to get by. In 2011 he likely purposely false started at World's because he knew he hadn't done enough to beat Blake in the 100m.

So yes, Bolt has the physical talent to compete today if he wanted to. But he's also way too lazy, and that's part of the package with him as well, you can't just pretend that doesn't exist.

Jacobs is the worlds fastest man. And if it was measured by top speed, then it might be Noah Lyles.

Bolt shouldn't have lost to Gatlin in 2016.

For the rest, I mostly agree. Yes, Bolt is lazy, and he especially was "done" after Rio and wanted to retire and enjoy life, and his millions. Good for him. My bigger point was some up thread were talking about how Bolt is "too old" - and I disagree. At his age, if he wanted it bad enough and was willing to still train, he 100% could still be the fastest person. He's not that old, even for a sprinter. I think we seem to agree on that.

I agree that Jacobs won the 100M fair and square and deserves the title of "world's fastest man". If anyone deserves the title above him though, it's certainly not Lyles, but De Grasse.

 

[SPF6ty9]

Bolt shouldn't have lost to Gatlin in 2016.

For the rest, I mostly agree. Yes, Bolt is lazy, and he especially was "done" after Rio and wanted to retire and enjoy life, and his millions. Good for him. My bigger point was some up thread were talking about how Bolt is "too old" - and I disagree. At his age, if he wanted it bad enough and was willing to still train, he 100% could still be the fastest person. He's not that old, even for a sprinter. I think we seem to agree on that.

I agree that Jacobs won the 100M fair and square and deserves the title of "world's fastest man". If anyone deserves the title above him though, it's certainly not Lyles, but De Grasse.

You're right, my bad, it was 2015 where Gatlin blew it. It was all Bolt in 2016.

I think when Lyles is on his game, he probably has the fastest top speed in the world of the guys actually competing, but much like the Bolt hypotheticals, he wasn't his best this year. Was fun watching him vs Coleman in the 100m in 2019 though, huge contrast in styles, like Ben Johnson vs Carl Lewis back in the day.

 

[Primary Assist]

I read some comment at how Andre De Grasse runs faster than Connor McDavid skates.

I know he’s around 42-43 km/h and during play you’ll see McDavid in the mid to late 30s km/h.

Hows that for a charity competition?

Logically I have to think if you gave McDavid 100 m of open straight ice he’d win?

You'd have to give McDavid 100m of open ice, and a big runway for him to slow down after. In the 100 meter dash, the athletes still go 25+ meters in a jog after the finish line to slow down. The fact that McDavid can hit the 38+ km/hour in about 30 feet of open ice, and not go offside, is pretty remarkable.

 

[bobholly39]

You'd have to give McDavid 100m of open ice, and a big runway for him to slow down after. In the 100 meter dash, the athletes still go 25+ meters in a jog after the finish line to slow down. The fact that McDavid can hit the 38+ km/hour in about 30 feet of open ice, and not go offside, is pretty remarkable.

This sounds like fun - but I think the biggest issue is that sprinters thrive in heat. And obviously, McDavid needs ice, which means cold weather. Those 2 things don't exactly mesh.