Why do you think the runners get faster all the time? Is it because human evolution produces better sprinters in a matter of decades? Or... maybe it's other advances, like better nutrition, training and tracks. Better drugs too, for too many.
And those advances are a handicap?
Those advances are what make them better.
If I am out of Olympic shape and I lose a race to Usain Bolt, I am not using his nutrition, training, and tracks as an excuse for why I lost to Usain Bolt.
So, if a guy runs 9.57 in 2030, but his competition finishes at 9.60 and 9.62, he'd be obviously faster than Bolt was
Yes.
but he wouldn't be a better sprinter, in my opinion.
He would be a worse sprinter despite being a faster sprinter.
Sound Logic.
Because if you could take young Bolt with a time machine and drop him to 2030,
But you can't. You can't make Usain Bolt BETTER than he actually was. He was only as good as he was. The constraints of his era don't make him BETTER.
he'd most likely beat those guys by a huge margin.
We're going around in circles here. The margin is huge because the guys he beat were not as good as the guys the guy in the future beat because the opposition in the future (9.60 and 9.62) looked at Usain Bolt, and tried to find runners with similar genetic trains (leg length, muscle fibre etc) and were institutionalized to be great sprinters. But why should that take away from someone who broke Bolt's record?
That's why you can only compare athletes over different eras by their dominance over their peers.
You can't compare athletes over different eras by their dominance over their peers when
different eras allow for different levels of dominance.
That's why a faster sprinter in the future might not be a better sprinter, or a better athlete, or a bigger talent, than Bolt was.
So that's why a faster sprinter in the future would be a naturally worse sprinter, worse athelte, and lesser talent than Bolt was. Because his competition was closer in level to Bolt.
I can't be the only one who sees this logic as inherently flawed. George Mikan is a "better" basketball player than LeBron James too?