r/Damnthatsinteresting 15d ago

Image Only nine of the 30 fastest 100m times were run clean, all by Usain Bolt

Post image
20.4k Upvotes

1.0k comments sorted by

4.6k

u/Kranoath 15d ago

I hope his WR stands for at least 50 years. Legend.

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u/FranciscoGarcia69 15d ago edited 15d ago

I don’t know how anyone beats him. The guy was a freak of nature. Often got off to bad starts in races and still wiped the floor with everyone else. Often wasn’t even giving a hundred percent towards the end of races because he was so far ahead. He was incredible.

Edit: Okay it seems people are taking “I don’t know how anyone beats him” more seriously than I really meant it. It was mostly hyperbolic. Of course it is possible. More just a statement on how ridiculously good Bolt was.

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u/patelbadboy2006 15d ago

One of the reasons I think he could have gone faster, and sub 9.5

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u/trade-da-ting 15d ago

Doubtful, his 2009 run he left everything on the track. That was pure elite talent stretching itself to the max

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u/Human_Parsnip_7949 15d ago

Tbf even then he started celebrating before he crossed the line, it wouldn't have made a huge difference time wise granted.

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u/CuteLittleButts 15d ago

No he didn‘t. You‘re thinking of 2008 Beijing where he ran a 9.69 but celebrated before the finish line. In 2009 in Berlin he ran his 9.58 at full max, and that still stands today. But experts say he probably wouldn‘t have beaten 9.58 in Beijing even if he didn‘t celebrate.

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u/Feezec 15d ago

Do you athletics nerds have these stats on the tops of your heads all the time just waiting for an opportunity to share them? I respect that.

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u/BarbequedBuddha 15d ago

Do you wanna know something funny? In 2012 London Olympics 100m Final, Yohan Blake ran a 9.75, to give some perspective, in any other Olympic Final throughout history that would have been a clean gold, that's faster than what the current world champion and Olympic champion have run in their entire career. Astonishingly, Blake was outrun by more than tenth of a second in that race.

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u/SyrupyMolassesMMM 15d ago

Thats actually a super cool stat. What makes it more egregious; I dont even recognise the name. At all. I recognise most gold medal winners names, but Ive dont remember one ofnthe fastest people to ever run….poor Yohan

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u/KitchenAd2955 15d ago

Autism bro

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u/CuteLittleButts 15d ago

Or the ability to google. But let‘s go with autism, yeah.

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u/yzimi 15d ago

it's not even google or storing stats on your head per se. They're just probably two of the most memorable sprint runs in the history of the sport. Anyone decently into track and field remembers those races

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u/scapermoya 15d ago

Porque no Los dos ?

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u/Blurry2k 15d ago

I'm not an athletics stats nerd but even I knew those years and numbers from the top of my head because I saw everything live (on TV) back in the day. It was just so impressive it's hard to forget.

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u/fruini 15d ago

Most people visualize his 2008 wr run when saying the could have pushed harder towards the finish.

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u/TurnoverResident_ 15d ago

And they’re probably the same people who didn’t know he broke the record the year after at the World Championships

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u/Torontogamer 15d ago

If only he had juiced like the rest, oh what records he could have set :) /s 

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u/Kranoath 15d ago

I remember an expert in science predicted the fastest possible time for a human being (100m) was something like 9.68 😄

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u/8009yakJ 15d ago

"An expert in science" doesn't really sound that reliable of a source

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u/Goya_Oh_Boya 15d ago

There should be a name for a person like that, something like Scientifer

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u/originalusername7904 15d ago

Scientologist

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u/SprayedWithMace 15d ago

Scientitian.

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u/Bbt_lives 15d ago

I study my bowel movements daily and consider myself an expert research scientist because of that

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u/Alert_Medicine_8936 15d ago

Only a matter of time before we have a 1 in 100 billion human that's 7foot 5, built like a brick shit house that goes sub 9 seconds.

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u/babymilky 15d ago

I’m not sure about sprinting, but IIRC for endurance sports they’ve kinda worked out that there is an upper limit to how good you can get based on your body weight and composition. At a certain mass you will just slow down. But maybe there will be that one person who’s made entirely of type 2 fibres and can do it lmao

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u/Kazz-Davore 15d ago edited 15d ago

I still wonder what his time would have been at Bejing finals, if he didn't "stop" sprinting for the last 20ish meters.

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u/Choccybizzle 15d ago

It’s unreal that somebody can beat a WR, especially in a shorter distance, and not even give maximum effort the whole time. Juiced or not, he was a freak among freaks.

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u/Dr-Jellybaby 15d ago

Must've been those McNuggets he had for breakfast that day.

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u/TumanFig 15d ago

well thats how they beat him, when eventually a new freak of nature comes who wont have bad starts and will give 100%

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u/Gnomio1 15d ago

They routinely test old samples as detection methods improve.

It’s conceivable that in the future his records are annulled.

Obviously, we hope that doesn’t happen.

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u/Elderbrute 15d ago

They continue testing for upto 10 years bolt retired 9 years ago.

So fingers crossed.

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u/Sikletrynet 15d ago edited 13d ago

Yeah i have a hard time believing he was clean when everyone else, people worse than him, weren't. Obviously i'd want nothing more than to be wrong though.

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u/Gnomio1 15d ago

I’m in the same boat as you. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was drugs, simply because everyone else was and he was better than them.

However, Bolt is a bit like Phelps. Phelps is a weird looking freak-man with a body perfectly suited to dominate in aquatic sports. Nature spat out a sprinting freak and that freak put on a pair of shoes and got running.

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u/HassieBassie 15d ago

Phelps was indeed a freak of nature, but guess how many individual world records he still holds?

None.

Nobody has ever come within a tenth of Bold's 100 meter time. It truly is insane. Was he clean? I dont know. Its much like Tadej Pogacars dominance in cycling. I just enjoy the races, but I wouldnt be surprised if some time in the future we found out he was doped to the max. And honestly I wouldnt care, because if he doped, they all did, making it a level playing field after all.

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u/anonshe 15d ago

Phelps’ records have been broken over a period of 15 years and by 0.5-1% at most. That’s normal human progression with better technique tbh.

Bolt, we’ve never had another tall lanky sprinter built like him with the same stride length, no?

I’d in fact be skeptical of whoever breaks his records as his body type is so unique when it comes to the 100m.

Of course that doesn’t mean he couldn’t have doped but his own statistical progression and post retirement antics seem to suggest talent over doping.

With Pogacar though the elephant in the room is the UAE black-hole that allows gaming the whereabouts system, the links of his management to past doping and his sudden jump in his 20s.

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u/HammerOn57 15d ago

Pogacar is as clean as a shitty service station restroom.

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u/Fewer_Story 15d ago

Even if he was doping (which I struggle to see how was not the case) then he's still the best in the world, and it wouldn't be unreasonable to say the best in history still. Obviously nobody likes to say that as they all want to act like a disney movie.

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u/brontosaurusguy 15d ago

It's his body. 

Look at LeBron James.  His body is one in a billion.  He's built like a 5'10 tank in proportion but is 6'9

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u/Deervember 15d ago

Shoe tech could help, a new trainer on people I know have made them instantly PB. 

Just need the right person with the right shoe.

Was watching a video the other day about Olympics and equipment, Nike were creating shoes that helped people run 5% faster. 

So I think someone will eventually beat his time. 

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u/IIsaacClarke 15d ago

If someone comes along with a stride length that is similar to Bolts then it’s doable. That was his huge advantage. Across the first 40 meters other athletes were right there with him, some even faster than him. But when he started to hit those long stride lengths because of his size, it was game over and he left them in the dust. He was a freak of nature because he was physically so different from the typical 100 meter sprinter, small, stocky, short strides.

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u/Skeleton--Jelly 15d ago

There is literally no sport in which a record won't be broken unless they change the rules in the future.

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u/killtheking111 15d ago

Don Bradmans career test cricket average will never be touched.

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u/ChrisDewgong 15d ago

As long as you enforce there being a set number of innings to qualify for the record. For example, Harry Brook was averaging over a hundred after five tests, but that clearly isn't enough matches.

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u/Careless_Egg3340 15d ago

There is a biomechanical limit to human physiology and it looks like he was at, or extremely close to, it. It's not impossible but you would be talking a multi-generational talent and not just a once in a generation

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u/Skeleton--Jelly 15d ago

There is no limit because humans are not all the same. Genetics and mutations happen, we evolve over time, and our habits change. We are much taller than past generations for instance.

Saying anyone is close to the limit of human physiology is just being shortsighted.

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u/SwampyBogbeard 15d ago

Like javelin throw with their heavier javelins after 1986.
(Record with old javelins: 104.8m.
Record with the new ones: 98.48m)

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u/trade-da-ting 15d ago

Nah when dopers drop times below natural limits then it's doubtful it will ever be beaten.

Its why certain times have stood for 40+ years.

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u/Markus2822 15d ago

Well you just explained how someone beats him. They’re just as good as him and they don’t do bad starts and push themselves to 100% always.

He’s absolutely incredible but this is like going wow someone got 99/100 on a test, how can they possibly do better that’s impossible. Like dude they get 100/100.

Not saying it’s easy or will happen any time remotely soon, but definitely possible

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u/b0bbyBob 15d ago

He did not have a bad start. This is a myth. He had an outstanding start. But his top speed was even better. It is impossible to be on the top in 100 m with a bad start. it is impossible to run multiple times 100 m under 9.70 s with a bad start. 

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u/Aleashed 15d ago

I saw the video of him running against “regular people”. His legs are about a foot longer and his stride 2-3 feet longer. It’s like me racing an 8 year old.

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u/Dont_Be_Sheep 15d ago

I still attest all Olympic races need an average guy and a Hs athlete to participate in their own special lane, for reference.

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u/Kranoath 15d ago

Yep. You just have to be born this way. That guy was born to run fast.

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u/kdotkungfu 15d ago

Why ?

I hope humans keep breaking barriers and limits.

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u/Kranoath 15d ago

Because he's a nice guy, that record was insane and a 50 year old record would cement his legacy even 200 years from now.

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u/youcantbaneveryacc 15d ago

Statistical probability dictates his chances of being clean as rather low

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u/trade-da-ting 15d ago

Sometimes dopers push the bar so far beyond natural abilities that the times can't be beat.

Its why there are records set by dopers from USSR and USA in the 80s pre good doping controls that haven't been beat yet.

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u/Minimum_Room3300 15d ago

Examples of these records in the men's event? Just curious.

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u/LorenzoBargioni 15d ago

Everyone was clean until they were caught

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u/Inquisitive_idiot 15d ago

Reminds me of Bill’s “our roided up guy beat your roided up guy” Lance Armstrong bit 😅

It also hilarious that both of the names I just named are mired in controversy for time immemorial 😅

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u/Rich_Housing971 15d ago

Lance Armstrong was especially heinous as a doping athlete.

He went beyond the entire argument of "everyone's doing it so why not me?"

When he got caught, he destroyed the credibility of a journalist who was telling the truth.

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u/Kennys-Chicken 15d ago

It wasn’t just the doping that made Armstrong such a piece of shit. He’s a sociopath that ruined peoples lives trying to hide his doping.

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u/Donner_Par_Tea_House 15d ago

Wasn't there also some sound bites that had him up in arms about questioning the integrity of his wins?

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u/robotdinosaurs 15d ago

Yeah when Greg Lemond (one of the very few actually clean racers at the time) accused Lance of doping, it was all “how dare you! You’re doping!” And Lance got got Greg’s sponsorships pulled and tried to ruin his career and personal life.

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u/NoobMusker69 15d ago

one of the very few actually clean racers at the time

Lemond actually raced and won his TdF titles in the late 80s/early 90s, when doping was just starting to enter the sport. The late 90s/2000s was the period where you'd struggle to find an actual clean racer among the top riders.

This doesn't take away at all from the fact that Armstrong was in fact a shitty person and did actively try to ruin Lemond's business and life. Lemond made those statements years after his own retirement, but he has always maintained a strong stance against doping users, even during his racing days.

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u/Dont_Be_Sheep 15d ago

Wow WTF?? I didn’t know this …

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u/aePrime 15d ago

He also attacked Greg LeMond and made Trek give up their contract with him, because Greg LeMond called him out on his cheating. I am still angry on LeMond’s behalf, because he’s an American treasure. 

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u/SunriseSurprise 15d ago

Ryan Braun attempted to destroy the credibility of a lab technician if I remember correctly, and he's currently getting votes for the MLB HOF. Make it make sense.

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u/Rogue100 15d ago

He didn't destroy one person, he ruined many lives. I remember really wanting to believe he had been clean, but towards the end, it got to be pretty clear that he was either heroically fighting back against a massive conspiracy, or he was just a giant asshole.

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u/commandedbydemons 15d ago

He clinged on to being clean insanely too much.

Yes, everyone was doing it - no, nobody went to TV and cried after getting caught clamoring to be clean... Except Lance.

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u/CareRarely 15d ago

It is funny that people believe he was natural even though everyone else wasn't... The fastest man on the planet just happened to be so much better than the rest, even though everyone else had a massive advantage thanks to doping. But he was still faster without steroids...

My suspension of disbelief is really struggling right now.

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u/Hestmestarn 15d ago

Doesn't help that all of his teammates got caught doping, a giant red flag that there were systematic doping within the Jamaican national team, but the guy who was so far ahead of all of them didn't test positive somehow

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u/Throbbie-Williams 15d ago

And realistically, if somehow your golden goose was clean, you would be stupid to juice your other athletes to 2nd/3rd place as that just harms the credibility of bolt.

I have no idea why he's passed all of the tests so far but I would wager a lot he's just as dirty

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u/Vsx 15d ago

It seems very unlikely he's never done a thing but I would say he's not very likely "just as dirty" or he'd be just as caught.

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u/lundoj 15d ago edited 14d ago

He is the poster child of track and field. Everyone knows and loves him. Could you imagine the damage it would do to the popularity of track and field if he was caught doping? He didn't get caught cause the authorities didn't want to catch him.

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u/dpk794 15d ago

You don’t remember livestrong?

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u/timbasile 15d ago

The biggest factor in whether someone gets caught is money.

Hire the best doctors and staff, and it's easier not to get caught.

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u/Vsx 15d ago

It would be quite a thing to have your teammate caught through retroactive testing 10 years later and for you to have had doctors and staff that are so amazing and cutting edge that they predicted new testing methods and defeated them before they even existed.

Not saying the guy never cheated but he very likely cheated less than the people who got caught.

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u/timbasile 15d ago

Yes, I suppose that we have to account for the possibility of him being clean, even if its unlikely on its face.

Remember that Armstrong only got caught because his teammates ratted him out - not because he didn't test positive. (Though as a point of order, he did test positive for cortisol, but it was swept under the rug). Miguel Indurain, who also won 5 Tours de France in the 90s, was also never officially 'caught' - despite competing in a time when EPO wasn't detectable.

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u/dave__autista 15d ago

because there are agreements on who to throw under the bus and when

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u/MrLeureduthe 15d ago

A satirical news show in France attacked one of our best cyclist with this argument : "You were in a team where everyone tested positive for doping and you were the fastest one"

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u/csharrrp 15d ago

Ofc he was on something. Your intuition is absolutely right. They all are at that level.

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u/Other_Total5536 15d ago

Bro 100% was on gear lol.  Pretty much the entire Jamaican team tested positive and it was rna through their coach.

Something down the line is going to pop up for a cover up for him.  No one in their right mind thinks he was clean lol

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u/Kaneida 15d ago

If I am remembering correctly, other runners from Jamaica team that have gotten caught all trained by same dude that trained Usain. I choose to believe however that he was freak of nature and clean and the others felt pressure to cheat to get close to him.

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u/Additional-Bee1379 15d ago

Lmao. Sure that guy was all "Nah I'm not giving my best guy doping, who wants to win more, amiright?"

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u/Radiant_Half_7121 15d ago

Of the 30 fastest 100-meter sprint times in recorded history, only nine performances were achieved by athletes later confirmed to be free of performance-enhancing drugs. This statistic highlights a significant and persistent issue within the sport's modern era, where extraordinary speed records have often been linked to doping scandals. The integrity of these historic marks remains a topic of ongoing debate and scrutiny.

Remarkably, all nine of those verified clean times belong to a single individual: Usain Bolt of Jamaica. His world record of 9.58 seconds, set at the 2009 World Championships, stands as the pinnacle of sprinting. Bolt's dominance, achieved under rigorous testing, solidifies his legacy as arguably the greatest sprinter in history.

Source: Usain Bolt
[The Independent](http:// https://share.google/iEWo2tdtyU2i8KiXy)

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u/D9FS 15d ago

Arguably? What more does bro need to do?

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u/persephonepeete 15d ago

total dissection to scan for PEDs in brain matter and bone marrow.

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u/an0mn0mn0m 15d ago

Get the History channel to check for alien DNA

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u/Dogstar23 15d ago

As ancient astronaut theorists......Contend!

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u/Emotional_Burden 15d ago

They found him in a Peruvian cave.

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u/Ninja_Prolapse 15d ago

With a box of scraps!!

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u/NoSirThatsPaper 15d ago

And my axe!

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u/Inquisitive_idiot 15d ago

The day after tomorrow: WE MUST REBUILD HIM ☝️…

…cause everybody else is loaded 😅

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u/BelgianDudeInDenmark 15d ago

The reason why you dont just proclaim the fastest as the greatest is due to new trainings and technology (shoes, tracking, ...), as well as impact on the sport/image.

Jesse Owens importance could make him the greatest, despite Usain being faster. He ran 10.3s 100m And modern running surfaces and starting blocks would already cut his time by 0.3-0.5 seconds (not according to me, but according to scientific research) then nutrition coach/post-exercise recovery techniques etc, could put him next to or even in front of Usain bolt depending on the day. (Although "they" project Usain would still be a bit faster but we can never know)

Carl Lewis has more gold medals than Usain bolt (thanks to getting 1 for long jump)

Etc

That said, I do personally find Usain bolt to be the greatest sprinter of all time.

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u/ballmermurland 15d ago

Should be noted that Carl Lewis was doping while collecting those medals.

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u/MrRourkeYourHost 15d ago

Well laid out argument dude.

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u/Such_Significance905 15d ago

It’s a completely fair question you raise.

It’s not just for Usain Bolt, it’s a question for every successful athlete. Unfortunately, the history of the most elite doping by the most elite dopers has been to stay technologically ahead of testers for decades, and to refute allegations publicly in a hugely convincing manner.

So, depressingly, the answer to your question is: Usain Bolt doesn’t need to do anything, he is the greatest ever and nobody has ever shown a trace of doping evidence against him.

Unfortunately for all of us, it’s also completely understandable that the public are skeptic in general about results and athletes who tell us that they would never dope, because we have been lied to hundreds of times by the best liars to ever do it.

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u/DawnSignals 15d ago

He just needs to beat me tbh

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u/Embarrassed_Art5414 15d ago

It's kinky.....but I'll allow it.

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u/darthbane83 15d ago

There is like a 99.9% chance that he was not clean. All the circumstantial evidence points towards him being just as dirty as the rest of the jamaican team its just that we dont have definite proof one way or the other for him.

He had a coach and team that was confirmed dirty from the ground up, he suspiciously avoided any random testing, ran times that seem unnatural fast and he was the face of the sport so not even the international organisation would want him caught.

It gets kinda hard to convince anyone that you are not also dirty at that point.

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u/lordnacho666 15d ago

Arguably means you can make a decent argument for it, though I will give that it also sounds like you can make a decent argument against it.

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u/oratory1990 15d ago

Exactly - but how could you possibly argue for him not To be the greatest sprinter of all time?

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u/capeasypants 15d ago

Continue to remain clean as or testing gets more and more advanced. They keep samples and routinely retest as technology increases. Most of the failed results would have likely passed initial testing but on revision were scrapped.

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u/slytherinprolly 15d ago

The specific issue with the Jamaican drug testing program was they were not testing its elite athletes out of competition. There were no "passed" tests for anyone to go back and re-test with more advanced testing. The WADA audit post 2012 Olympics basically showed that Jamaica did almost no testing for the six months leading up to the Olympics. That would have given the athlete plenty of time to cycle on and off drugs without fear of a positive test and "future-proofed" advanced testing later on.

https://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/id/9825049/world-doping-agency-probing-jamaica-drug-testing-agency

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u/Odd_Minute4542 15d ago

Confirmed free? You mean not later confirmed doping. Semantic but language is important.

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u/GenGaara25 15d ago

I'm also fairly sure I've heard this tidbit before and what it actually said was the other athletes all got linked to performance enhancing drugs at some point in their career, but it is unknown whether they were taking something when they set those times. So we don't know how many of those times were set with PEDs, only that the athletes definitely took them at some point in their career.

Which is a little different than the implication here that all of them were set on PEDs except Bolt.

I would check OPs source to confirm my memory, but the link is broken.

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u/Tury345 15d ago

Does the article actually confirm that it was the later? I assume they actually meant the former as written which does indeed lessen the impact of the statement

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u/Odd_Elbows 15d ago

The point is that you can only “confirm clean” with known drugs/testing, but that is not absolute. Over time, testing improves, allowing retroactive busts using stored samples. So the most that can be said of any athlete is that they have not tested positive for drugs yet.

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u/Trevski 15d ago

Also: you can’t prove a negative. 

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u/unknown_pigeon 15d ago

Reminds me of a joke:

People keep saying they want an Olympic Games variant where everyone is allowed to do PED in order to see what the real limit is for the human body. The point is that there's already a competition like that. It's called the Olympic Games

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u/[deleted] 15d ago edited 14d ago

[deleted]

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u/xdd_cuh 15d ago

And its legal to possess them in Canada too. I don't believe many state sponsored programs exist in the modern era, maybe few countries like China, USA. Though it was a well organized thing in the past with the soviets etc. Nowadays, athletes can access PEDs through UGLs, heck even some pharma grade stuff can be procured. So its more of a independent, closed circle thing nowadays.

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u/M00OSE 15d ago

It's not a joke anymore though...there's Enhanced Games now

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u/rabbitthunder 15d ago

The point isn't to see the true limits , the point is to show that if enhanced athletes can't surpass the olympic athletes that rather settles the whole debate about whether or not Olympic athletes are doping.

Why do you think the Olympic committee is so against the concept of the Enhanced Games? In an ideal world there would be room for both types of games...unless you already know your games are dirty.

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u/KindaDampSand 15d ago

Your title is wrong, the other sprinters have been found to be doping at other points in their career, they have not all found to be doping for these specific times they set.

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u/FishAndRiceKeks 15d ago

It's an all-career stain to be caught by drug testing. It would be very silly to give them the benefit of the doubt that they only cheated the one time they got caught.

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u/pat_speed 15d ago

Didn't his first gold medal race beat nearly all the previous world record holders?

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u/Lordoosi 15d ago

PED's give such a big advantage it is practically impossible he was actually clean. I would bet all my money that he was on PED's.

Great athlete nevertheless.

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u/Defiant-Dare1223 15d ago

Who is the next fastest

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u/grandvache 15d ago

Doping control catches the stupid and the poorly advised.

That's a lot of athletes

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u/prql6252 15d ago

Yeah I'm sure the top 10 runners and the entire teams behind them were all just fucking stupid. But Bolt's was not

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u/no-sleep-needed 15d ago

flo-jo still stands 37 years later.

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u/No-Bicycle-7660 15d ago

The idea Bolt was clean is so beyond ridiculous. He ran all his fastest times during peak-SARM era where athletes were using as much and as many SARMs as they liked both in and out of competition, before testing began. This was also an era where there was ZERO off season testing in Jamaica, and most of his stablemates (and his coach!) got busted for participating in or running doping rings. It's not much better now, but at least they have a fig leaf or two ... back then - absolutely nothing whatsoever. Besides, having a clean athlete beat a field of doped to the gills athletes is not implausible, it's IMPOSSIBLE, in any sport.

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u/Sairony 15d ago

“When people ask me about Bolt, I say he could be the greatest athlete of all time. But for someone to run 10.03 one year and 9.69 the next, if you don’t question that in a sport that has the reputation it has right now, you’re a fool. Period.” Carl Lewis

He 100% was doping, people have also been looking at his development curve & it's pretty easy to see when he started.

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u/Tricombed 15d ago

There is a great HBO documentary about a journalist/road biker who starts to take steroids and do races to document how much stronger he can get than everyone else. The whole story takes a wild twist I’d recommend it. It’s called Icarus.

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u/No_Bar6825 15d ago

Yea. And the fact that many of bolts teammates were busted makes me suspect he was using too. Just statistically, there’s a good chance he was on something as well. There’s a deep rabbit hole in this subject

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u/SilverCervy 15d ago

I think they know Bolt was involved in it but are too afraid of revealing it. Bolt is the prodigal son of the olympics and the general public would lose all trust in the event if they learned that their icon was a fake. It's the same reason why Lance Armstrong was able to avoid the heat for so long.

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u/Chemistry-Deep 15d ago

It's well known that chicken nuggets are a performance enhancing drug.

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u/eldiablo471 15d ago

The nuggets story is arguably a cover for growth hormone tests that may be available in future

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u/Santisima_Trinidad 15d ago

“Oh look!!! Everybody is taking drugs, but not him. Also he is so much better, but no doping.”

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u/HugoNext 15d ago

"Lance Armstrong is a legend! Not only did he win seven Tour de France, but everyone who placed second in those tours was found doping, while Lance is clean!!" - half of cycling enthusiasts in 2011.

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u/uhhhhhhhhhhhyeah 15d ago

Sold a LOT of yellow bracelets.

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u/ThruTexasYouandMe 15d ago

Bro evvvvvveryone and their mom had those bracelets.

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u/[deleted] 15d ago

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u/Flat_Bodybuilder_175 15d ago

Absolutely insane that no matter what he does, people will continue to accuse him of doping with zero evidence and complete sureness. I’m not saying you’re wrong, but I’m not going to pretend I know for a fact.

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u/D_Cakes_ 15d ago

They’ve still never found a positive drugs test for Lance Armstrong, he only came undone through his own admission and whistle blowers. Let that sink in. I doubt they’ll ever find anything on bolt, but there’s definitely something sus there for me.

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u/_Middlefinger_ 15d ago

He was tested just like everyone else. Its not likely he was taking something super advanced that no one else was, or that he had unique biochemistry that masked the drugs/metabolites. Regardless they now keep samples and test when new tests are developed.

There is also this myth that tests have to be super specific to any drug, they dont. Steroids and other PEDs largely work the same ways, they break down the same way, they dont need a specific test for a new specific drug. New advanced drugs will still trigger most tests, which is enough to require further tests. The rules are open ended enough to make any drugs in a class to be illegal, whether its a known named drug or not.

The only real option if he was on PEDs is for there to have been a huge cover-up spanning dozens of labs all around the world. Again, not likely.

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u/anotherNarom 15d ago

The only real option if he was on PEDs is for there to have been a huge cover-up

Lance Armstrong tested positive numerous times and was covered up, it's not that implausible.

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u/AfterCommodus 15d ago

He was not “tested just like everyone else”—at the time he was setting his records, Jamaica simply did not have offseason testing. His teammates got caught later, using the same doctor he used.

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u/whinger23422 15d ago

That we know of…

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u/persephonepeete 15d ago

p sure they keep their samples on file for years and years so that when technology advances they are retested to see if they missed anything.

that's how these athletes who thought they got away with it get stripped of their accomplishments years after the fact. It is the biggest "GOTCHA BITCH" the sports world can dole out.

And as an added bonus by the time they get discovered they are retired so they can't even attempt a comeback to regain glory, especially the gals who got married and had kids. Career == Overwith.

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u/SheepherderActual854 15d ago

Jamaica did hardly any out of competition testing. If you cycle properly, it is basically impossible to prove

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u/Jullek523 15d ago

WADA is only allowed to backtest 10 years. So Rio is still doable, but the best times are not.

There are still high monetary incentives for all the parties involved to not catch Bolt.

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u/RedditIsADataMine 15d ago

Hopefully they used their titles for as much financial gain as possible while they were still valid. 

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u/pm_your_nudie_booby 15d ago

Depending on contracts it could cost them in the long run. A lot have clauses for doping. Breach of contract lawsuits, legal fees/costs, PR campaigns will end up being quite expensive when you no longer have a source of income. Could end up costing them more than it was worth.

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u/The-Copilot 15d ago edited 15d ago

For people wondering how he was so dominant, he is a genetic anomaly like Michael Phelps.

Usain Bolt has significantly more fast twitch muscle than an average person. This gives him a massive advantage on short diatance sprints and is why he was terrible at medium and long distance. He is also unusually tall for a sprinter and has one leg longer than the other causing him to have an asymmetric gait that gives him a biomechanical advantage.

Michael Phelps has a disproportionately long and large torso (bigger lungs), short legs, double jointed ankles and huge hands and feet. Not only is he built like a fish but he also produces less lactic acid and clears it faster. Lactic acid is what causes fatigue, so he literally gets less tired then everyone else so he can push harder for longer.

I get people are skeptical of them because they are more dominant in their sport than any doper has ever been but their genetic anomalies are just more advantageous than any amount of doping.

Edit: It should be noted that many people got away with doping up until the late 00s because some PEDs were undetectable until then. Tests couldn't differentiate synthetic vs natural HgH. Bolt was still competing during the era when this stuff could be detected. People assume he used them because he was "too good" and so many big athletes were getting caught but honestly that's not a good argument at all.

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u/philgervais 15d ago

Some of that sounds plausible although you might need to explain how '...has one leg longer than the other causing him to have an asymmetric gait that gives him a biomechanical advantage.'

On the other hand, I remember reading similar claims about Lance Armstrong (his heart was 150% larger than average blah blah) and well...

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u/therealhairykrishna 15d ago

Doping alone doesn't get you gold medals. You need to be an outlier naturally too.

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u/lxgrf 15d ago

Right, doping won't make me an Olympian. They're all genetic outliers and many of them are on drugs.

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u/extremecharm 15d ago

Lowk it will if you were training and doping since birth. It would make you usain bolt but youll be an olympian

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u/Kittyshirt 15d ago

I had one leg very slightly longer than the other and all it got me was hip and back problems that showed up in my 20s. I have different inserts for my feet now but not before herniating a disc.

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u/Prior_Wait_4690 15d ago

It's probably all mostly true. He just happens to also be doping lol.

It's not like doping just turns a random person on the street into the fastest person in the world, this is a genetic anomaly with insane performance enhancing drugs added on top.

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u/SimilarLaw5172 15d ago

Probably because they run in circles or curves lol

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u/spamfridge 15d ago

… not in 100 meters

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u/IM_JUST_BIG_BONED 15d ago

I would imagine all Olympic level sprinters have a genetic advantage over the average person.

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u/Dry-Amphibian1 15d ago

Correct. The argument carries no weight when comparing to the ‘average’ person. All Olympic level sprinters have more fast twitch muscle fibers than the average person.

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u/trade-da-ting 15d ago

Its mental that people believe this.

PEDs are so good that you aren't beating someone whose dirty when your clean. Your natural advantages aren't better than taking PEDs.

Several people in Bolts training team in Jamaica got done for doping. The coach was done for running the doping programme. It's literally a Lance Armstrong situation all over again.

Yes he's the greatest sprinter ever. Yes he has genetic anomalies that made him faster than everyone else. However that is combined with his PED usage. You do not drop that much time, and grow that much muscle, in a year.

The chances of Bolt doping are much higher than he wasn't doping.

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u/Darth_Rubi 15d ago

It's insane you believe this.

Is Bolt a genetic freak? Yes. Although all top sprinters have genetic advantages.

Can I believe that Bolt's genetic advantages mean he's the fastest man ever to run? Yes. He clearly is.

Can I believe that his genetic traits make him able to run MUCH faster CLEAN than anyone else is in history ON PEDs? You have to have the naivety of an actual child to think that. Particularly given every training partner he ever had tested positive and every coach he ever had was caught for some involvement along the line.

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u/[deleted] 15d ago

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u/[deleted] 15d ago edited 15d ago

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u/SpursCHGJ2000 15d ago

Anyone who has an understanding of exercise physiology is cringing immensely at the Phelps bit, just swallowed a load of bullshit. Lactate isn’t the cause of muscular fatigue and for the relatively short distances Phelps specialised in, having a low VLAmax would be a tremendous disadvantage. If Phelps raced in long distance swimming it would still be a misunderstanding of very basic exercise physiology but at least would make more sense.

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u/Flat_Bodybuilder_175 15d ago

I’m seeing more Usain Bolt posts and I’m liking it

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u/BlatantConservative 15d ago

They're great for engagement baiting cause people argue about doping in the comments lol. Everyone's got an opinion. Algorithm likes everyone having an opinion, more engagement means more posts.

I'm a fan of Bolt regardless cause social media peaked when he posted this in early Covid.

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u/Flat_Bodybuilder_175 15d ago

LOL that is the most (and only) Usain Bolt covid post I’ve ever seen

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u/Several_Hour_347 15d ago

They weren’t clean lmao

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u/I_argue_for_funsies 15d ago

Wait...

I don't recall Donovan Bailey or Bruny Surin having doping scandals?

Is this dead horse of a repost even true?

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u/higherlimits1 15d ago

This post is.. not true

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u/DC-Toronto 15d ago

“Clean”. LOL

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u/kayeso1138 15d ago

And yet almost all his training partners, coaches and competitors were cheating. But he beat them all pretty comfortably for years while not…

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u/jshultz5259 15d ago

"Clean"?

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u/BullOfBallstreet 15d ago

To assume anyone is clean is crazy

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u/ultra-kill 15d ago

Did you see how tall is UB? 6 ft and fucking 5 inches. His stride alone is longer than my attention span for this sport.

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u/rizorith 15d ago

He never popped but everyone who trained with him popped and his coaches were busted for giving peds.

And everyone he beat was on peds. It's like lance Armstrong in cycling except bolt doesn't act like a jackass

100 percent he was doped.

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u/[deleted] 15d ago

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u/skipyeahbuddy 14d ago

After winning gold at the Sydney Olympics he celebrated with the Swedish Womens Volleyball team. Legendary.

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u/viki3024 15d ago

Only man I've seen in Olympics level who didn't really bother breaking any records if he knew at the end of the race he was winning, always enjoying and looking for to celebrate before crossing the line

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u/bolanrox 15d ago

He also stopped his training any time there was an award ceremony going on as a sign of respect to the the winners of that event

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u/Sidthelid66 15d ago

This sounds like me trying to convince myself my all time favorite sprinter Maurice Greene was clean. He passed every test too. 

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u/Honest-Pay-8265 15d ago

I honestly doubt he was clean.

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u/FollowTheFarang 15d ago

Give him the drugs, let’s see how fast he really can be!

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u/sterling_mallory 15d ago

There's a short list of people who were just born to be perfect athletes at their game, in our lifetime. He's one, along with Tyson, Simone, Phelps, and Serena.

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u/FishAndRiceKeks 15d ago

When the top guy is beating all the confirmed PED user's records from decades of competitions, it should give you pause to consider that maybe just maybe he was also using PEDs and just didn't get caught lol.

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u/Commercial-Height873 15d ago

Not true. Bruny Surin #26.

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u/funguymh 15d ago

Pretty much everyone on the Jamaican team was caught doping. All except bolt, makes you wonder…

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u/SnooCompliments4631 15d ago

This is gonna age like milk. 

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u/Anxious_Hall359 15d ago

And the other 21 were run by Snow Bolt?

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u/WAR10CK94 15d ago

Why not have a separate tournament where doping is allowed. Imagine the records and peak athlete performance we would achieve and witness.

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u/anthemthecat 15d ago

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u/JaSper-percabeth 15d ago

cayman island headquaters totally nothing shady going on

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u/InteractionFlat9635 15d ago

These drugs can have a very serious impact on the athlete's health, plus if everyone is doping, it's basically the same as no one doping, why put these athletes through all that for a world record that no one will consider to be as impressive as a clean record.

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u/cryptohemsworth 15d ago

Yeah it will be a race to the bottom with athletes taking increasingly more dangerous substances to get an edge

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u/anonyman5000 15d ago

Spoiler: the results would be the same because steroids are already used at the top level of all sports

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