Lyles is good for the sport. Love him or hate him, he's the closest thing we've had to Bolt for a while now.
I don’t think so. Lyles is kind of a unique one. His profile doesn’t really match any of the other top all time guys. He’s not as fast pure speed wise as Bolt, Blake, Gay, etc. were in their prime, but he also doesn’t have the endurance of Michael Johnson. His style and strengths and weaknesses are a blend of some of the other elites but he has some differences too. He’s kind of a blend of a lot of them. Knighton/Bolt as a comparison makes a lot more sense.
Lyles is good for the sport. Love him or hate him, he's the closest thing we've had to Bolt for a while now.
I don’t think so. Lyles is kind of a unique one. His profile doesn’t really match any of the other top all time guys. He’s not as fast pure speed wise as Bolt, Blake, Gay, etc. were in their prime, but he also doesn’t have the endurance of Michael Johnson. His style and strengths and weaknesses are a blend of some of the other elites but he has some differences too. He’s kind of a blend of a lot of them. Knighton/Bolt as a comparison makes a lot more sense.
He just ran a 9.16 second 100-meter split, which is faster than Bolt ever did. What do you mean he doesn't have as fast of pure speed? He just takes longer to build up to that speed as compared to Bolt, which is why Bolt is Bolt and Lyles is not on that level.
I don’t think so. Lyles is kind of a unique one. His profile doesn’t really match any of the other top all time guys. He’s not as fast pure speed wise as Bolt, Blake, Gay, etc. were in their prime, but he also doesn’t have the endurance of Michael Johnson. His style and strengths and weaknesses are a blend of some of the other elites but he has some differences too. He’s kind of a blend of a lot of them. Knighton/Bolt as a comparison makes a lot more sense.
He just ran a 9.16 second 100-meter split, which is faster than Bolt ever did. What do you mean he doesn't have as fast of pure speed? He just takes longer to build up to that speed as compared to Bolt, which is why Bolt is Bolt and Lyles is not on that level.
Lyles can hold speed well but you’re talking about a running start. His top end is still nowhere close to Bolt, and the two run the race a lot differently. Keep in mind that Bolt ran a 9.92 in his WR on the curve. Lyles ran a 10.1 something tonight. Bolt could have easily run faster than 9.16 down the straight if he chose to do so, but he attacked the race differently.
He just ran a 9.16 second 100-meter split, which is faster than Bolt ever did. What do you mean he doesn't have as fast of pure speed? He just takes longer to build up to that speed as compared to Bolt, which is why Bolt is Bolt and Lyles is not on that level.
Lyles can hold speed well but you’re talking about a running start. His top end is still nowhere close to Bolt, and the two run the race a lot differently. Keep in mind that Bolt ran a 9.92 in his WR on the curve. Lyles ran a 10.1 something tonight. Bolt could have easily run faster than 9.16 down the straight if he chose to do so, but he attacked the race differently.
His top end speed (velocity) is absolutely faster than Bolt's. The 9.16 second 100-meters proves that. You're talking about acceleration (remember a = v/t), and Bolt is clearly way better there.
Irrelevant thought. World record times (swimming and running) are coming down much more slowly. Are we nearing
(Women's 800. 1983).
Oh boy this can of worms:
First off swimming is a bad comparison to running in this regard. The sport has been heavily impacted by revolutions in technique: e.g underwater dolphin kicks, breaststroke and butterfly looking radically different than they did 40 years ago, straight arm freestyle, Paltreineri showing that there's more room for experimentation that one may think, et cetera, and technology: e.g Google, lane lines, pools, especially swimsuits, etc.
With swimming being somewhat unnatural for humans and water providing much more drag than the air there's just been far more room for progress in the sport.
Where as with running technological improvements have had far less of an overall impact, especially with doping having been virtually unchecked for large swaths of the sports history.
However there's an interesting discussion about parallels between the new shoes for distance running and the supersuits in swimming from 2008-2009. The men and women's 5k, 10k, half and marathon records have all been obliterated recently and tines in general have seen a huge drop compared to the previous decade. Likewise the oldest records in swimming are all leftover times from the supersuit era, and it's got so bad that fans of the sport keep a separate list of "textile world records" (though today there's a good chunk more textile records than there are supersuit records)
I noticed this a few years ago. Mark Spitz swam 51.94 to set a new 100 Free WR at the 1970 AAUs. Sarah Sjöström went 51.71 to set a new women's WR at the 2017 WCs. No flies on the ladies, but something similar has never, and probably will never, happen in T&F in the modern era.
Successfully figuring out how to make a pool faster is pretty impressive. Isn't that where the radical improvements lie, not with swimsuits or strokes?
Lyles can hold speed well but you’re talking about a running start. His top end is still nowhere close to Bolt, and the two run the race a lot differently. Keep in mind that Bolt ran a 9.92 in his WR on the curve. Lyles ran a 10.1 something tonight. Bolt could have easily run faster than 9.16 down the straight if he chose to do so, but he attacked the race differently.
His top end speed (velocity) is absolutely faster than Bolt's. The 9.16 second 100-meters proves that. You're talking about acceleration (remember a = v/t), and Bolt is clearly way better there.
Obviously Bolt--who ran a 9.58 100, with a .81 10 meter segment--had a higher absolute top speed. He also ran the following splits in his 19.19 200 WR: 5.60, 4.32, 4.52, and 4.75. Obviously, Lyles did not approach running a 50 meter segment in 4.32 (.864 average for each 10 meter segment) nor whatever Bolt's fastest 10 meter segment actually was.
His top end speed (velocity) is absolutely faster than Bolt's. The 9.16 second 100-meters proves that. You're talking about acceleration (remember a = v/t), and Bolt is clearly way better there.
Obviously Bolt--who ran a 9.58 100, with a .81 10 meter segment--had a higher absolute top speed. He also ran the following splits in his 19.19 200 WR: 5.60, 4.32, 4.52, and 4.75. Obviously, Lyles did not approach running a 50 meter segment in 4.32 (.864 average for each 10 meter segment) nor whatever Bolt's fastest 10 meter segment actually was.
Yes, Bolt wasn't really that good 200 m runner, but his 100 m was so much better than anyone else's that it carried him through to decent 200 m success as well.
That's too bad. Johnson seemed like an intelligent class act. Lyles seems like a pompous idiot.
This right here. Lyles truly does seem like an idiot; that on track praying thing is over the top moronic. Yup, he's fast but man I wish he had some class like MJ.
That's too bad. Johnson seemed like an intelligent class act. Lyles seems like a pompous idiot.
This right here. Lyles truly does seem like an idiot; that on track praying thing is over the top moronic. Yup, he's fast but man I wish he had some class like MJ.
Go back and take a look at the tape. At first he's slightly disappointed b/c he sees he's only tied the AR, and as he turns his back on the finish line timing board, 19.31 pops up, but he doesn't really notice.
He then begins his schtick with the Buddhist prayer or whatever that is, but then stands up and sees what's on the huge vid screen in front of him and shifts gears, realizing he has, in fact, broken it. He starts pounding the track, just giving it a good beating. Whether this was spontaneous or planned, it came off as unique. Don't think I've ever seen anybody punching a track before.
He then rips off his singlet like peeling a banana, revealing his torso, sort of like Bolt in Daegu after he false started. Christ, this guy is chiselled.
And then celebrates with his folks and co-medalists.
That's too bad. Johnson seemed like an intelligent class act. Lyles seems like a pompous idiot.
Had this been the NFL, and Lyles just scored six and was dancing and prancing in the end zone, you probably wouldn't have a problem with that. It might not have been your preference, but you'd chalk it up to the nature of the game.
Track and field isn't football.
However, Lyles understands how celebrity and flare brings eyeballs to the stage. Most everything he does brings people back for more. And track desperately needs more people watching, talking and participating in the sport at grassroot levels in the US.
Let him continue making the moves, scoring on unbelievable plays and showing excitement for the chance to be THE GUY who has the talent to connect people to the sport.