{"id":93354,"date":"2024-07-12T13:20:37","date_gmt":"2024-07-12T13:20:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/12\/world-record-speeds-for-two-olympics-events-have-fallen-over-time-we-can-go-faster\/"},"modified":"2024-07-12T13:20:37","modified_gmt":"2024-07-12T13:20:37","slug":"world-record-speeds-for-two-olympics-events-have-fallen-over-time-we-can-go-faster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/12\/world-record-speeds-for-two-olympics-events-have-fallen-over-time-we-can-go-faster\/","title":{"rendered":"World record speeds for two Olympics events have fallen over time. We can go faster"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><\/div> \r\n<br><br><div style=\"clear:both\">\n<style><![CDATA[\n.subscribe-cta {\n  color: black;\n  margin-top: 0px;\n  background-color: #D5DDEE;\n  background-size: cover;\n  padding: 20px;\n  border: 1px solid black;\n  border-top: 5px solid black;\n  clear: both;\n}\n\n.centered {\n  text-align:center;\n  margin:auto;\n}\n\n]]><\/style>\n<!-- \/wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:group {\"className\":\"subscribe-cta\"} -->\n<div id=\"subscribeConversion\" class=\"wp-block-group subscribe-cta\"><!-- wp:heading {\"textAlign\":\"center\",\"style\":{\"typography\":{\"fontSize\":\"2em\"}}} -->\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\" style=\"font-size:2em\">Take our AI Survey<\/h2>\n<!-- \/wp:heading -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph {\"align\":\"center\",\"style\":{\"typography\":{\"fontSize\":\"1.1em\"}}} -->\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\" style=\"font-size:1.1em\"><em>Science News <\/em>has partnered with <a href=\"https:\/\/trustingnews.org\/about-us\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Trusting News<\/a> to gather feedback on the potential use of AI in journalism. <strong>Currently, we do not publish any content produced by generative AI<\/strong> (see our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencenews.org\/about-science-news\/journalism-standards-practices#ai-policy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">policy<\/a>). We do want to hear your views on how <em>Science News<\/em> could use AI responsibly.  Let us know by participating in a short 10 question survey.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:spacer {\"height\":\"20px\"} -->\n\n<!-- \/wp:spacer -->\n\n<!-- wp:buttons {\"className\":\"centered\",\"layout\":{\"type\":\"flex\",\"justifyContent\":\"center\"}} -->\n\n<!-- \/wp:buttons --><\/div>\n<!-- \/wp:group -->\n\n\n<p>On land, records in the 100-meter dash have been in place since 2009 for men and 1988 for women. Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt ran the race in just 9.58 seconds with a top speed of nearly 40 kilometers per hour, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencenews.org\/article\/breaking-speed-limit\">beating his previous world record<\/a> by just under a tenth of a second (<em>SN: 11\/20\/09<\/em>). Meanwhile, the women\u2019s record is held by American sprinter Florence Griffith Joyner, who completed the distance in 10.49 seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-sciencenews-content-sidebar\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Speedier runs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Times for the 100-meter dash have gone down by about a second for men since recordkeeping began in 1912. Women are running the race about three seconds faster since the first record was set in 1922. Though Florence Griffith Joyner is the current women\u2019s record holder, the record is in doubt. Winds over 2 meters per second disqualify new records. The wind gauge registered 0, but other races that day had logged winds. Still, the record stands.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Embed\" class=\"sn-responsive-iframe\" id=\"sn-responsive-iframe-47\" src=\"https:\/\/flo.uri.sh\/visualisation\/18381688\/embed\" width=\"100%\" height=\"500\" layout=\"responsive\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\">\n\t<\/iframe>\n\n\n<p>Starting in 1968, some record times were oddly higher than earlier ones. That reflects a transition to electronic timing, with precision to a hundredth of a second. Previous manual times were rounded to the nearest tenth of a second.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Based on <a href=\"https:\/\/journals.physiology.org\/doi\/full\/10.1152\/japplphysiol.00947.2009\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">human gait and our muscle strength<\/a>, research suggests that people might be capable of running as fast as roughly 60 km\/h. That\u2019s 100 meters in 5.625 seconds. But the realities of sprinting speed largely depend on technique, says Ross Miller, a biomechanist at the University of Maryland in College Park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cA sprint should be as hard as you can every step,\u201d Miller says. \u201cMaximum, instantaneous effort all the time.\u201d Top speed depends on how little time our feet need to come in contact with the ground while still applying the force necessary to propel us forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s possible that no one has yet run at maximum speed because no one has come along with the physical ability, Miller says. Or it could be because the right person hasn\u2019t had access to the training, or hasn\u2019t \u201cput it all together yet in the perfect race.\u201d In the past century, the fastest time for the 100-meter dash has shrunk by one second for men and about three seconds for women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s much harder for humans to go fast in water. In the 50-meter freestyle, the men\u2019s record belongs to C\u00e9sar Cielo Filho, a swimmer from Brazil who swam the pool\u2019s length in 20.91 seconds in 2009 \u2014 just under one-quarter of Bolt\u2019s record-setting average running speed. In 2023, Swedish swimmer Sarah Sj\u00f6str\u00f6m swam the race in 23.61 seconds to earn the women\u2019s record. Both top times are roughly three seconds fewer than the first records set in the 1970s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-sciencenews-content-sidebar\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Faster swims<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>World record times for men and women in the 50-meter freestyle have gone down by about three seconds since recordkeeping began in the late 1970s. A wave of new records came in 2008 and 2009, when a new swimsuit line manufactured by Speedo entered pools. The expensive fabric compressed swimmers\u2019 bodies and also made them more buoyant, giving swimmers who wore them a speed advantage. The suits were banned from competition in 2010.<\/p>\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Embed\" class=\"sn-responsive-iframe\" id=\"sn-responsive-iframe-48\" src=\"https:\/\/flo.uri.sh\/visualisation\/18381685\/embed\" width=\"100%\" height=\"500\" layout=\"responsive\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\">\n\t<\/iframe><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>Swimming is slower than running largely because water is far denser than air, says Timothy Wei, a fluid dynamist at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. But also, \u201cwe all have this bowling ball between our shoulders. And this thing creates a huge amount of drag.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For swimming speed, it\u2019s unknown how much room there is for growth. Swimming with the body parallel to the water\u2019s surface can help eliminate the drag on our less-than-ideal frames. Superfast freestyle swimmers also raise their elbows as high as possible above the water, plunging their arms dramatically close to perpendicular with the water to pull themselves forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIf you get your technique right, and you can get your stroke rate as high as possible,\u201d Wei says, \u201cthat combination is what\u2019s going to get you to go as fast as you can.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n<br>\r\n<br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencenews.org\/article\/olympics-world-records-how-fast-dash\">Source link <\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Take our AI Survey Science News has partnered with Trusting News to gather feedback on the potential use of AI in journalism. Currently, we do not publish any content produced by generative AI (see our policy). We do want to hear your views on how Science News could use AI responsibly. Let us know by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93355,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sciencenews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/061724_eg_olympic-records_feat.jpg?fit=800%2C450&ssl=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[606],"tags":[5843,16809,8623,4988,1541,6614,222,1052],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93354"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93354"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93356,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93354\/revisions\/93356"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}