I saw this in a very old Sports Illustrated. I thought it was interesting to see what he accomplished close to 100 years ago
100m 11.2
Long Jump 22' 6.75"
High Jump 6' 1.5"
400m 52.2
shot 42' 5.5"
discus 125' 3.75"
110 hurdles 15.6
Pole Vault 10'8"
Javelin 149' 11.25"
1500m 4:40.1
Just damn. He was good. Besides the 1500, how many of these marks do you think you could match. Remember, he was basically using a broom stick for the pole vault before you discount that mark.
Also, very little training.
The greatest "natural" of all time.
Wasn't the "pit" used for high jump and pole vault also made with saw dust?
5krnr wrote:
Wasn\'t the \"pit\" used for high jump and pole vault also made with saw dust?
Heck, it was probably sand, at least the HJ.
He ran faster for 1500 than Dan O'Brien did.
Aside from advances in training and/or drugs (let's be real, folks), what other differences are there?
Cinder track (maybe 0.2 sec per 100m difference)
No starting blocks - you dug holes for your feet
Not only was the pole made of wood, they didn't even have a plant box
Shot & disc had only basic techniques developed -- done on grass & in spikes
Ditto for the high jump
Hurdles were like upside-down "T"s and did nasty things to your crotch if you hit them
Frank Zarnowski put together a "relative score" system for decathlons. Decathletes' scores are compared to how then-current World Records would score in the ten events. Thorpe is far ahead of everyone else.
Beat them all already!
Thorpe, if alive today, would score like 9,200 points.
I’m a D2 female runner. Our coach explicitly told us not to visit LetsRun forums.
Great interview with Steve Cram - says Jakob has no chance of WRs this year
RENATO can you talk about the preparation of Emile Cairess 2:06
2024 College Track & Field Open Coaching Positions Discussion
adizero Road to Records with Yomif Kejelcha, Agnes Ngetich, Hobbs Kessler & many more is Saturday
Hats off to my dad. He just ran a 1:42 Half Marathon and turns 75 in 2 months!