 Jamaican sprinter Asafa Powell: the world's fastest man. (AP Photo) |
This simple Latin dictum — faster, higher, stronger — not only serves as the motto for the Olympic Games, but is also the ideological tie that binds every 100-metre sprinter in history.
Over the past 93 years, 14 different athletes have been recognized as "the world's fastest man," each man faster and stronger, and having aimed higher than his predecessor.
From Don Lippincott in 1912 to Asafa Powell in 2005 and everybody in between, all of them have been guided by those three pillars of the Olympic philosophy: speed, ambition and strength.
The world record in the 100-metre dash was first recognized in 1912 by the International Association of Athletics Federations, track and field's world governing body.
It's interesting to note that the sprinter first considered the world's fastest man did not even win Olympic gold when he set the record. Don Lippincott, an 18-year-old student from the University of Pennsylvania, ran the 100 in 10.6 seconds in a qualifying heat at the 1912 Stockholm Games, but only managed a bronze in the sprint final.
Lippincott's claim to being the world's fastest man lasted nine years before fellow American Charlie Paddock established a new record of 10.4 seconds on April 23, 1921 at a university track meet in California.
Amazingly, Paddock broke four world records on the day — 100 metres, 200 metres, 300 yards and 300 metres — and equalled the world's record in the 100-yard dash.
Like Lippincott, Paddock's record remained intact for nine years, before falling at the feet of Canadian Percy Williams.
The Vancouver native stunned the world when he won gold in the 100 and 200 at the 1928 Olympics. Many sports journalists thought Williams's double-gold performance was a fluke, saying the soft track in Amsterdam aided the Canadian. But Williams proved all the doubters wrong and earned his place in the pantheon of Canadian sports idols when he ran the 100 in 10.3 seconds two years later in Toronto.
Williams, the first of only four non-Americans to be known as the world's fastest man, retained the title for six years before Jesse Owens, another sprinter with a point to prove, took the crown from him.
The African-American son of an Alabama sharecropper, Owens is best remembered for winning four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Games, his victories soundly refuting Hitler's doctrine of the racial superiority of white Europeans. But it was just weeks before the Olympics opened that Owens broke the 100-metre world record, clocking 10.2 seconds at a meet in Chicago.
Owens's record stood for two decades before American Willie Williams came along and ran the 100 in 10.1 seconds at a meet in Berlin. Ironically, Williams accomplished the feat 20 years to the date and on the very same track that Owens won the gold medal in the 100.
West Germany's Armin Hary took over the mantle of the world's fastest man when he ran the 100 in 10 seconds flat at a 1960 meet in Zurich. Hary sprinted to the gold medal later that year at the Rome Olympics, the first non-American to win the 100 since Percy Williams turned the trick in 1928.
American sprinter Jim Hines broke the 10-second barrier with a 9.9 at the 1968 U.S. national championships. Months later at the Mexico City Olympics, Hines posted a time of 9.95 to win the gold medal, his sprint ushering in a new era in track and field as the IAAF began recording times electronically, as opposed to using manual stopwatches.
Hines's record went unchallenged for 15 years before American Calvin Smith ran the 100 in 9.93 seconds at a 1983 track meet in Colorado.
Four years later, Canadian Ben Johnson gained instant global fame when he defeated reigning gold-medallist Carl Lewis and set a new record with a 9.83 in the 100 final at the world championships in Rome.
That set the stage for one of the most highly anticipated events in Olympic history: Johnson-Lewis II in the 100 final at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. With a massive television audience watching in suspense, Johnson established a new world record at 9.79 seconds to win the gold medal.
Johnson's resounding victory sparked wild celebrations from Victoria to St. John's. The festivities, however, were short-lived: days after the race, Johnson's urine samples tested positive for the steroid Stanozolol, and he was disqualified for doping.
Johnson was stripped of the gold medal and the IAAF erased both his 1987 and 1988 record-setting times from the record books. Lewis, who clocked 9.92 in Seoul, was now recognized as the world's fastest man.
From this point on, the record fell a fair bit of regularity thanks to improved training methods, better equipment and advanced coaching methods.
"I think events like The Golden League and other world meets that have emerged since the 1980s have led to more and more world-class competitors, and so it wasn't so surprising to see the record fall with more regularity," Steve Ovett, one of England's great middle-distance runners, told CBC Sports Online.
"It's also important not to underestimate the increase in incentives, namely money and commercial opportunities," added Ovett, who won a gold medal in the 800-metres and a bronze in the 1500-metres at the 1980 Games in Moscow.
Lewis and fellow American Leroy Burell traded the world record three times between 1991 and 1994 before Canadian sprinter Donovan Bailey, fresh off his victory in the 100-metres at the 1995 world championships, shocked the world at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, winning the gold medal in a world-record time of 9.84 seconds.
Bailey's victory went a long way to restore the tarnished image of Canadian athletes in the aftermath of the Ben Johnson debacle.
American Maurice Greene became track and field's new superstar when he won gold in the 100 at the 1997 world championships. Greene successfully defended his title at the 1999 world championships in Athens, eclipsing Bailey's record by clocking 9.79 to become the world's fastest man.
At the 2002 world championship in Paris, Greene lost his world record to fellow American Tim Montgomery, who beat his time by 0.01.
The record, however, was clouded in controversy.
Prior to the 2004 Athens Olympics, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency accused Montgomery of using illegal performance-enhancing drugs. Montgomery has never failed a drug test and has repeatedly denied taking any banned substances, but he still faces charges based on evidence gathered in the criminal investigation of the BALCO laboratory.
All of which leads us to this past week when Jamaican sprinter Asafa Powell established a new world record with a time of 9.77 seconds in Athens.
"Everyone's been telling me, for a long time now, that I'm the fastest man in the world," Powell said after the race. "I just proved it."
Not only did he become the world's fastest man, Powell also restored a veneer of respectability to a record that has been tarnished by the alleged doping offences of Montgomery.
So, who will be the world's next fastest man?
If recent history is any indication, the record will fall sooner, rather than later.
"Just wait and see," said Powell, who is already eyeing this year's world championships in Helsinki. "You haven't seen the last of it. Who knows? Maybe I'll run nine-something-lower."
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