100-Meter Record Shattered!

Usain Bolt, set the world record in the 100-meter dash on Saturday night with a time of 9.72 seconds at the Reebok Grand Prix.

It was .02 seconds faster than the previous record held by fellow Jamaican teammate Asafa Powell.

Check out the ESPN.com article right here.

The crazy thing is that Bolt is a 200 guy and wasn't even considered a contender for the 100 record before he ran a 9.76 (the second-fastest 100 ever) last month at a meet in Jamaica.

Knowing this nugget of information, I'm still sticking to my guns on a previous post I wrote and saying that the world record will be broken again in Beijing. Then, I believe it will be broken two or three more times until it remains at 9.5 for a very, very long time.

Speaking of the Olympics, I don't know about you, but with all the crap going on in the world, I'm really looking forward to this year's Summer Olympics.

Add to that the fact that it's taking place in censorship-heavy Beijing, China - and you've got the possibility that something really, really crazy is going to happen.

I'm talking 'fist in the air in the land of hypocrisy'-type Olympic stuff.

If the torch-carrying protests around the world are any sign, the Beijing Olympics will be a hotbed of political intrigue, anti-censorship rants and negative criticism.

I can't wait!

How Fast Can You Run the 100 Meter Dash?

I just found out that Sham Asafa Powell of Jamaica set the world record in the 100 meters at 9.74 seconds on September 9, 2007.

Pretty impressive.

In high school, I think I clocked my best 100 in a mind-blowing 12 seconds. It was a 'junior varsity' heat and I took first place. And no, it wasn't one of those 'special' races. But, that's beside the point.

In my personal opinion, I think the 100-meter record will be broken, once again, at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China. Then, I believe it will be broken two or three more times until it remains at 9.5 for a very, very long time.

With technology, new training methods, possible muscle-enhancing leg surgeries and secretive drugs pumped into your legs, is it possible that a human will ever run a 100-meter dash under nine seconds? Hey, while we're at it, how about eight seconds?

"No way," you say.

Well, that's the same thing they said about running a mile under four minutes in the 1950's and look what happened with that. In 1954, Roger Bannister silenced the naysayers and ran the first officially-recorded sub-four-minute mile at 3 minutes 59.4 seconds in Oxford, England. In 53 years, an impressive 16 seconds has been cut from that time with the current record of 3:43.13 set by Morocco's Hicham El Guerrouj in 1999.

"But what about the 100 meters?" you ask.

According to Wikipedia (take it with a grain of salt), at the inaugural Olympics in Athens, Greece in 1896, Tom Burke ran a 100 meters in 12 seconds (just like me!) - it was the earliest 'record' known to man. However, this was before the 1912 recognition of records. That's when Don Lippincott recorded an 'official' world-record time of 10.2 seconds.

Since then, the record has been broken or tied 65 times in 95 years.

But, sooner or later, don't you think there has to be a moment when the 100-meter dash record can never be broken? Forever?

What will that official unbreakable time be? And when and where will it happen?

Who knows, but I'm sure we'll get there a lot faster when all of our athletes are allowed to use performance-enhancing steroids at the All-World Steroid Olympics.