Again, where is this “sprinting is comparatively weak” coming from? I am not disagreeing, but I would like to hear some reasoning.
Other sports might take a few good sprinters, but the whole “NFL” thing is overrated.. Yeah there are some fast guys, but they all ran track, and some even won NCAA’s like Holliday in 2009–but was Holliday ever going 9.58?
He got knocked out of the trials in the semi’s in 2008, which was a great showing. The fastest of the fast NFL guys would be, and have been, competitive at trials up to the level of the semi’s, but to be in the rarefied top-10 all-time takes specialization, and the right sauce. Could the best-of-the-best have competed? My guess is yes, but that represents only a handful of guys—and that says nothing about the Dolt level of 9.58.
At best they would add to the body of 9.9 work, with maybe an exceptional one going 9.8 or 9.7-high. The chances of a 9.6 are infinitesimal, and the chances of a 9.5 are completely speculative. There is no good reason that I can see that either the WR would be lower than 9.58, or that anybody else would have gotten closer than 9.69.
Gatlin and Blake have both been fast, and were fast when young, like Dolt. They were beating football guys who ran track just the same, then they specialized and used, and didn’t get to 9.58.
The interesting thing is of course 19.26. While not 100m, it is temptingly suggestive of just how good the juice is.
Look at CC. There is NO WAY that he would be anywhere near his current times without it, with that form. He is just a turnover monster, neurologically supercharged. He is like Collins, with more turnout and a longer stride. If he could get to 9.76, then wow.
I don’t think selection has anything to do with the 100m WR. I think there are plenty of guys worldwide who could be pumped to 9.7.
BUT there is no indication that there is any sub-20 15-yr old other than Dolt now, no indication that there ever could have been, and no reasonable expectation that one will emerge in the next few years. Nobody is even close.
Dolt was special. He had extreme strengths, and glaring, easily-overcome weaknesses, and in the right race segments. You could never take a young acceleration phenom like Combest and impart to him a world-beating second half. You could improve upon it, but you could never make it epic.
The start and early accel, otoh, can be made great, there is no question. Look at Dolt, his early part was as good as anybody’s, ever, once he was fine-tuned—and through training, his first half ended up the best ever.
9.58 is way down there, and is special. Exceptional raw material, the perfect cure for the weaknesses, and a system that was determined to make it happen.
How do you get that in distance? Look at Komen—what was he like before the insanity? What were his strengths, and weaknesses? He TT’d much of those races, and lived to tell about it. I think distance guys have been tuned just as much, to the point where they have no weakness. What was Bekele’s weakness at his peak? None. El G’s? None.
Dolt was unique in that he had both extreme talent and extreme weakness, of the right sort, at the same time.
Maybe there is a similar distance great, honestly IDK—but if not, 9.58 may really be a “stronger” record.