In DT and JT you can get freakishly good conditions, and the throw will be legal—unlike the 100m or 200m, where those great conditions will not be legal if they are captured by the measuring equipment.
So all else being equal, the throws have a better chance of going down because there is one less element of chance.
Think about 9.58. Had there been a +4.0 wind that hadn’t read properly, it would have been 9.46.
Now, I don’t think that FloJo had Bolt’s potential. On her level, I think that time would have been maybe a tenth slower, so 9.56 for a record—essentially the same as Bolt, only a hair faster. Like Obadele Thompson’s 9.69 way before Bolt, only FloJo was better than him.
The 100m is a finicky event. For sure, someone could come close, but FloJo had 3 things: 1. Great form; 2. Great drugs; 3. Great wind. Make no mistake, those 3 things have coincided before, but even when they did, nobody approached 10.49. Pharmelita could have hot it in a hurricane, but didn’t—and even if she had, the wind gauge would likely not mis-read.
DT and JT have the first 2 of those qualities, and there have been a great many throws since, with great wind. They are super out-there, but like the jumps, do mot have the level of participation, glam, or reward as does the 100m. The fastest man or woman at 100m is likely actually the fastest. Even LJ os often just 100m sprinters jumping.
Speaking of which, Echevarria is close, and what if Bolt had dedicated to it and jumped? Who knows.
Women are more dramatic responders than men, so it has to be a women’s record. I will give you this: the 100m record has an element of chance that the 200, 400, and 800 do not have, particularly the last two. Chance can happen, but the 400 and 800 are pure balls, and nobody has come close, really. And 21.34...Schippers and Thompson were edging up to it, and dropped off—Thompson hit her structural limit and injured, and I think DS just got scared. Still 0.3 away, like the couple of guys going 19.5 to Bolt’s 19.2 No way they were going to get it.
One thing this shows is that for women, roids work better than anything, up to 800m and for all throws. My guess is that as long as there is some testing, none of these records will be broken—unless a junior not in the competition pool achieves WR-quality, then is unleashed on the pro ranks to break the record quickly, giving no baseline, and having clearance. This could happen in the throws, most likely SP—but it is a highly unlikely trajectory, and would need something like a Ma’s Army 2.0, the underground version.