The Vintage Olympics Channel
Vintage Photos, Film Footage, and More

Saturday, August 20, 2016

Modern Sprinter, 1936 Conditions

Slightly off-topic for this blog, but this is something I wonder about every four years: How would modern world-class athletes fare using the sports equipment/conditions from past eras -- cinder tracks, wool swimsuits, etc? Someone put it to the test by having Andre De Grasse run a 100 meter sprint on dirt while wearing old-school leather racing spikes. Granted it was a sample size of one and the dirt appeared to be less compacted than that of an actual track, but his 11-second time suggests that Jesse Owens (who won the event in 10.3 seconds in 1936) would be very competitive if he time traveled to 2016.


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