Who Are The Greatest Sprinters

00:00:00: Hello, we are Sandalwood

00:00:01: and Sage.

00:00:02: We're AI generated characters who aren't even able to break into a jog.

00:00:07: but that isn't going to stop us from holding occasional debates on Who Are The Ultimate Sporting Greats?

00:00:14: the goats?

00:00:16: because debating is not just a way to express what you already think.

00:00:19: it's A Way To Figure It Out What You Really Think And Why.

00:00:24: So...what are we arguing about this week?

00:00:36: In this episode Sage and I are continuing our series of GOAT debates with an eye on the European Athletics Championships in August, twenty-twenty six in Birmingham.

00:00:50: This week we're debating who are the greatest ever sprinters to grace the track?

00:00:57: Let's be honest!

00:00:58: We all think we know who is The Male Goat but will be digging into why... ...and how strong a case can be made for his rivals.

00:01:06: We always take into account the evolving dietary science, training methods surfaces athletes perform on and equipment with which they do it.

00:01:30: The women's elite group is likely to be much more competitive and contentious.

00:01:42: he also won both titles at three world championships.

00:02:10: He has held the World Records in both events simultaneously.

00:02:15: for nearly seventeen years, he won every individual sprint final he ever started at The Olympics or World Championships.

00:02:28: No other man has done any of these things.

00:02:33: Boat stands head and shoulders above every rival on every dimension.

00:02:41: Two other athletes can make a strong case.

00:02:43: Carl Lewis won the first three, one hundred metre world championships And the nineteen eighty four Olympic sprint double.

00:02:51: His nineteen ninety-one World Championship One Hundred Metres was The only race where six men broke ten seconds until Bolts London twenty twelve run.

00:03:02: On a like-for-like era basis, Lewis runs Bolt close.

00:03:06: More recently Noah Lyles is undeniably in goat contention.

00:03:11: He has won four consecutive World Two Hundred Meter titles including the Sprint Double in twenty twenty three.

00:03:19: His gift is winning The Fastest Fields.

00:03:22: At the twenty twenty two worlds.

00:03:24: he ran the third fastest two hundred meters ever In a race where bronze went under nineteen point eight.

00:03:32: He won the world one hundred meter title in a race where four men broke nine point eight eight and his Paris two thousand twenty-four Olympic triumph saw The entire field run under nine point nine, too Probably the fastest foot race ever run.

00:03:49: You haven't moved me an inch.

00:03:52: Let's turn to the women which is far more interesting.

00:03:57: you championed Maria Metola for the eight hundred meters goat on the strength of her twenty-year career.

00:04:03: So surely, Merlene Otti with nine Olympic medals across seven games and a record fourteen world championship medals is your female sprint goat?

00:04:23: Fraser Price holds ten World Championship golds and two Olympic one hundred metre titles.

00:04:31: In twenty thirteen she became the first woman to win The One Hundred Meter, Two Hundred Meter & Sprint Relay at a single world championships And She was on the Olympic podium from two thousand eight to twenty twenty-one thirteen years at the absolute top.

00:04:55: But my goat is Elaine Thompson Hira, she's the only woman to win the sprint double in two consecutive Olympics – Rio and Tokyo.

00:05:09: holds five Olympic golds.

00:05:18: The clincher is the Tokyo twenty-twenty one hundred meter final, the pinnacle of women's sprint racing.

00:05:27: To win Thompson Hira broke the Olympic record and the entire podium of Thompson Hire.

00:05:36: Fraser Price and Sharika Jackson finished under ten point seven six times that would have won gold in almost any other year.

00:05:50: The GOAT wins the biggest races most often, and wins the toughest race of them all!

00:05:57: Well Sandalwood I'm going to jump right-in and say that apart from a couple of dismissive remarks you've missed two of the strongest female goat candidates Evelyn Ashford & Florence Griffith Joiner.

00:06:12: In terms of staying at the very top over several Olympic cycles, Ashford should have been high on your list.

00:06:19: Maybe at the top?

00:06:20: She competed in four Olympics between nineteen seventy six and nineteen ninety two winning Olympic gold and setting a new Olympic record in nineteen eighty-four.

00:06:31: At age thirty five she anchored The US for by one hundred meters relay to Gold in Barcelona.

00:06:39: However While Ashford was the dominant American sprinter of the pre-Nineteen eighty eight decade, she was running at a time when most world and Olympic champions were coming from East Germany and The Soviet Union.

00:06:52: And of course the US boycotted the nineteen eighty Olympics in Moscow against Florence Griffith Joiner In nineteen eighty eight, the Europeans where?

00:07:00: nowhere to be seen as an eight hundred meter debate.

00:07:04: I'm drawn to people who run fastest especially on the biggest stages.

00:07:09: We are talking about foot races, after all.

00:07:12: And on that basis Flojo has to be the GOAT!

00:07:16: Hang on Sage... Flojo's claim to Be The Goat rests entirely on those few months between the nineteen eight-to-eight US Olympic trials and the sole Olympics that summer when she smashed Evelyn Ashford's nineteen eighty four world record twice over any other time frame, you'd have to say that Ashford was the better sprinter of The Two.

00:07:45: True we're comparing Peaks with consistent excellence.

00:07:49: but think of this.

00:07:50: what Flojo achieved in her nineteen eighty-eight peak season has yet to be repeated by any woman.

00:07:57: at the US trials she broke Ashford's one hundred meters world record by over a quarter of second setting.

00:08:07: She beat that Ashford time again in the sole Olympic final.

00:08:10: Even more remarkably, she smashed the world two hundred meter record twice within a hundred minutes In the semi-finals and finals of those same Olympics.

00:08:21: I'd argue that in terms of physique endurance And running technique Griffith Joyner represented The future of women's sprinting.

00:08:29: there is no need to complicate the argument.

00:08:31: If you believe That the fastest runner must be the greatest then Flojo is your goat.

00:08:37: The goat debate in the men's sprints begins and ends with Usain Bolt, we're talking about the triple double winning both sprints across three consecutive Olympics plus the nine point five eight a nineteen point one.

00:08:55: nine world records held simultaneously for nearly seventeen years.

00:09:02: His head-to-head record against Gatlin, Gaye and Blake three of the five fastest men ever was virtually flawless.

00:09:13: He didn't just beat his rivals he demoralized them.

00:09:18: Incredible resume but era matters.

00:09:21: Carl Lewis set The one hundred meter record twice Defended his Olympic title unheard off before Bolt And his nineteen ninety one Tokyo final At age thirty, produced the first race where six men broke ten seconds.

00:09:37: Meanwhile no allials is beating the fastest fields ever assembled In Paris.

00:09:43: The entire one hundred metre final broke ten second.

00:09:47: His two-hundred meter forepeat at the world's Is genuinely bolt adjacent.

00:09:53: Bolt adjacent isn't bought.

00:09:56: Moving on and applying the same logic of championship dominance to the women, my goat is Elaine Thompson-Heara.

00:10:06: The only woman to achieve the Olympic sprint double-double winning the one hundred and two hundred in back-to-back games with five olympic golds.

00:10:19: that's the ultimate proof.

00:10:27: Why abandon it for the women?

00:10:29: Florence Griffith Joiner is the fastest woman ever to stride the earth.

00:10:33: Her ten point four nine and twenty one point three, four records have stood for nearly forty years.

00:10:40: not even Thompson here at her absolute peak has come within two tenths of the two hundred meter mark.

00:10:47: if The goal of sprinting is to cover the distance in the shortest time possible flow Joe Is the undisputed goat.

00:10:55: let's stop dancing around it.

00:10:58: You can't call Flojo the Goat while ignoring the asterisk over nineteen

00:11:03: eighty-eight.".

00:11:05: A career ten point nine runner suddenly runs ten point four nine!

00:11:11: She peaked for one season and retired, The moment random out of competition testing was announced.

00:11:20: That's not a career arc that is getaway.

00:11:24: That's a convenient narrative, but it is intellectually lazy.

00:11:28: Flojo passed every test she ever took including the most rigorous screening in Sol Al Joyner and Jackie Joyner-Cursey put her through a revolutionary strength program.

00:11:39: that was a biomechanical shift not a chemical one.

00:11:43: You give Bolt a pass for nine point five eight just as large of statistical outlier yet penalize Flojo being too good.

00:11:52: What makes an athlete a goat is domination over multiple Olympic cycles against the fastest fields in history with no clouds or question marks.

00:12:06: Bolt never left a doubt.

00:12:09: Thompson, Hera and Fraser Price tested hundreds of times over fifteen year careers.

00:12:16: Never Left A Doubt.

00:12:18: When people look at Flo Joe's records All they do is doubt.

00:12:24: You cannot be the greatest of all time if your entire legacy

00:12:33: And

00:12:51: Bolt's clock says, nine point five eight.

00:12:55: With eight years of global domination either side it Flo Joe gave us one glorious baffling season.

00:13:04: I'll take the complete story over The short story with missing ending every time.

00:13:10: If

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00:13:23: Thanks for watching, see ya next time!