I was watching NBC's coverage of the Olympics and they crowned Bolt as the greatest sprinter of all time . IIRC, in recent memory Bolt has only lost to Tyson Gay and Yohan Blake , while Rudisha has only lost to Mohammad Aman . It seems as Bolt only loses when he has a bad race, as does Rudisha . So who is more dominant in their event , Usain Bolt in the 100/200 , or David Rudisha in the 800 ?
Lets also not forget that both men hold the World Record in their respective events .
Currently, it's Rudisha. He set the WR AND won the gold. Bolt's performances at these Games are great, but we've seen better (albeit from Bolt himself.)
rudisha
He broke the world record leading gun to tape, unheard of today in a non sprint event, broke 1:41 in the process, towed everyone to a PR or SB. He is now WR holder, CR holder, OR holder. The only one under 1:41 more than 2 times (only other has done it more than once). Only one under 1:41. Rudisha has only lost once since 2009.
Bolt lost twice this year at his trials, lost to tyson gay in 2010. Almost lost his world record in the 200 last year, probably would have is Blake didn't have such a horrible start. Also false started and lost 100m title
You could also look at it in terms of their affect on the record books.
1982-present: 800 WR broken 6 times, 3 by David Rudisha.
: 100 WR broken 13 times, 3 by Usain Bolt.
: 200 WR broken 4 times, 2 by Usain Bolt.
Rudisha is more dominant. The idea of someone other than David Rudisha winning 800m gold was almost unthinkable. But in the 100 and 200, it seemed quite possible that Yohan Blake could upset Bolt.
Bolt definitely dominated the 100 and 200, but not quite like King David. That 800 was never in question for even a moment.
Bolt has three world records. Rudisha has one.
Bolt vs Rudisha over 400 meters would settle the issue.
Rudisha never seems to have any competitors. When he walks up to the line, you know he's going to win. Not the same of Bolt. Blake beat him twice at the Jamaican trials and looked to challenge him during the early stages of the home stretch in the 200. Nobody ever really challenged Rudisha in the 800.
But it's interesting that in the 100/200 and in the 800 a bunch of runners are all of the sudden throwing down times only a few in history have run previously.
Tough question. Rudisha is clearly further ahead of his closest competitor than Bolt...but I'd say that closest competitor in Blake is a lot better than Rudisha's closest competitor. Or at least I would have said that until Amos became tied for #3 all time today.
Rudisha's WR in a mid distance event is certainly much more of a rarity in a championship race, and you can't do anything more dominant than run a wire to wire world record in such a race. But then again, Bolt won the (double) double.
So I can't really make a call...I do think however Bolt is the greater raw talent, and if he trained as seriously as Rudisha he would be more dominant and I think he would have set two world records at this year's games.
Why does one have to be more dominant than the other?
WonderingSprinter wrote:
I was watching NBC's coverage of the Olympics and they crowned Bolt as the greatest sprinter of all time . IIRC, in recent memory Bolt has only lost to Tyson Gay and Yohan Blake , while Rudisha has only lost to Mohammad Aman . It seems as Bolt only loses when he has a bad race, as does Rudisha . So who is more dominant in their event , Usain Bolt in the 100/200 , or David Rudisha in the 800 ?
DOUMBIAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!! wrote:
We've seen better (albeit from Bolt himself.)
And from Blake.
for reasons we know....
A totally irrelevant question.
At the pinnacle of sport used to stand the world heavyweight boxing champion.
That was back in the Ali era and before - now it is the fastest man the world has ever seen and he has more personality in that woolly hat he discarded than those Klitschko brothers have had in a lifetime of victories in the ring - and sad to say, also that of Rudisha.
Had you been in the stadium on 100 final night, you would have seen the contrast.
Once Bolt entered the track, nobody could take their eyes off him, he is charismatic and mesmerising like no other athlete I have ever seen.
That is why over 2 billion people worldwide tuned into the 100 final that night.
Drop Bolt into any country in the world (possibly apart from the insular USA) and he would be instantly recognised and mobbed wherever he went.
Dominance? Bolt is Mr London 2012 Olympics himself - without his presence, the Games would have been like staging Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark in the cast.
Enoch wrote:
A totally irrelevant question.
At the pinnacle of sport used to stand the world heavyweight boxing champion.
That was back in the Ali era and before - now it is the fastest man the world has ever seen and he has more personality in that woolly hat he discarded than those Klitschko brothers have had in a lifetime of victories in the ring - and sad to say, also that of Rudisha.
Had you been in the stadium on 100 final night, you would have seen the contrast.
Once Bolt entered the track, nobody could take their eyes off him, he is charismatic and mesmerising like no other athlete I have ever seen.
That is why over 2 billion people worldwide tuned into the 100 final that night.
Drop Bolt into any country in the world (possibly apart from the insular USA) and he would be instantly recognised and mobbed wherever he went.
Dominance? Bolt is Mr London 2012 Olympics himself - without his presence, the Games would have been like staging Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark in the cast.
the question was who's the most dominant athlete, not the bigger star.
I would point out that Bolt has run the 100mts in 9.58 and the 200 in 19.19 - and admit it, before Bolt arrived on the scene, we would have considered it virtually impossible for a human to run that fast.
We thought Johnson’s time of 19.32 would last a lifetime.
Rudisha ran less than a second faster than Coe ran over 30 years ago.
All the while, we'll never see the women's 100m and 800m WR's broken. Odd, isn't it? You can call it dope, but the men had all the same reources of course.
In percentage, Rudisha did little to upset the WR of Kipketer a couple tenths off 101 seconds. tenths of per cents. He's scrathing off less than what would translate to 1cm in pole vault.
Bolt took a couple percents off, not even fractals, full percents. Oddly not from the 200m. Which only makes Johnson look bad to me, really.
Rudisha may be more dominant but his competition is also weaker. He's not lining up against the fastest 800 guys in history but Bolt is racing the fastest sprinters of all time.
consider this wrote:
Rudisha may be more dominant but his competition is also weaker. He's not lining up against the fastest 800 guys in history but Bolt is racing the fastest sprinters of all time.
No he's just running on the fastest tracks loaded fro sprinting. It's no coincidence we are getting more sub 9.9 men all the time.
Johnson in his prime could have run 19.0X on this track. Bob Hayes ran 10 flat on ashphalt in leather clogs off part time training.
No one in history could have lived with Rudisha.