The "Lightning Man" From The Future: Why Usain Bolt Became The Fastest Man On The Planet
- 21.08.2026, 8:10
Today, the athlete turns 40.
Today, August 21, marks the 40th birthday of a one-of-a-kind athlete—Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, according to nv.ua
Bolt is an eight-time Olympic champion and 11-time world champion (a men’s record). In addition, Bolt had one Olympic gold medal stripped from him after his relay partner tested positive for doping.
Over the course of his career, Usain Bolt has set eight world records. He currently holds the records in the 100-meter dash (9.58 seconds) and the 200-meter dash (19.19 seconds), as well as in the 4×100-meter relay as part of the Jamaican national team—36.84 seconds.
He is the only athlete to have won the 100-meter and 200-meter sprints at three consecutive Olympic Games (Beijing 2008, London 2012, and Rio de Janeiro 2016).
What is the secret behind “Lightning”—the nickname Usain earned for his blistering speed and signature finish gesture?
One leg is shorter than the other
Usain Bolt has congenital scoliosis, which causes his right leg to be 1.5 centimeters shorter than his left—making his status as the fastest man in history even more phenomenal.
As a child, Usain preferred cricket, where an athletics coach noticed his speed and convinced the young boy to switch sports.
Bolt set his first world record in 2007, when he ran the 100-meter dash in 9.72. At the 2008 Olympics, he improved that time to 9.69. And yet, just a few meters before the finish line, Usain began celebrating his victory—unthinkable behavior in a sprint. After the Games, New Scientist magazine published a report by physicists from the University of Oslo’s Department of Astrophysics. According to the article, if Usain had run at full speed all the way to the finish line, his time would have been between 9.55 and 9.69 seconds.
Usain set his current records in the 100- and 200-meter races at the 2009 World Championships. Since then, he has won quite a few medals, but he has not been able to break those records again.
The Limits of Human Ability
In the 100-meter final at the 2008 Olympics, Bolt recorded a top speed of 12.2 m/s (43.9 km/h) and an average stride length of 2.6 meters. He needed 41 strides, while his main competitors Asafa Powell and Tyson Gay took 2–3 more strides.
On August 16, 2009, in the World Championships final, Bolt set a world record in the 100-meter dash—9.58. According to the IAAF, Usain covered the distance from 60 to 80 meters in 1.61 seconds. The highest average speed—12.42 m/s (44.72 km/h)—was recorded during this segment.
Usain Bolt’s speed phenomenon lies in the combination of his tall stature (195 cm) with a stride frequency typical of shorter sprinters.
Typically, tall runners have a long stride but move their legs slowly. Usain managed to take up to 4.23 strides per second. This is virtually identical to the figures for shorter athletes.
Because of his height, Bolt often lost the initial burst over the first 30 meters. Between 50 and 80 meters, he reached his top speed. While his competitors were already beginning to slow down by that point, Bolt continued to accelerate.
Ethan Siegel, an American theoretical astrophysicist , believes that Usain made a “physiological leap into the future.” His results were not expected to be achieved for another 30 years.
According to Siegel’s research, track athletes improved the world record in the 100-meter dash by an average of 0.05 seconds every 10 years. Bolt improved the record by 0.14 seconds in just 1 year and 3 months. The scientist plotted a timeline of world records and concluded that the world record of 9.58 was not expected to be set until 2039.
Top results in the 100-meter dash
In his publications, Siegel reflected on the limits of the human body. He noted that from the standpoint of anatomy, skeletal geometry, and tendon strength, an average person cannot run faster than a certain limit without risking muscle damage. Ziegel believes that Bolt’s time is dangerously close to the absolute theoretical maximum for a “pure” (biological) human. And any significant improvement on this record in the future will most likely require genetic or cybernetic intervention, taking the athlete beyond the limits of normal anatomy.