Until in 1968, an extraordinary North American sprinter achieved the feat in Mexico: His name was Jim Hines and he used 9 seconds and 95 hundredths to run the 100 m.
This time meant that a man had been able to catch up running, almost 40 km per hour.
In recent decades, several athletes have been lowering that time, until June 1, 2008, a new speed star emerged.
For the 100 m, he used 9 seconds 72 hundredths, at an average of 45 km per hour, an unequivocal sign of the infinite possibilities of man.
The location of the feat was New York City.
The athlete, who was born in Jamaica, is called Usain Bolt.
And two words about that Caribbean country in Central America.
Its capital is Kingdom, where Bolt was born.
Jamaica has about 3 million inhabitants.
Athletics is the national sport and it is not by chance that the previous world record holder in the 100 m dash was born there: Asafa Powell.
There are almost no illiterates in Jamaica, which formed, decades ago, with other islands, the federation of the British West Indies.
Today it is an independent country.
But back to Usain Bolt.
He is 21 years old and weighs 76 kg, which harmonizes with his 1.93 m height.
That record meant -especially in the US- a fortune in dollars, advertising contracts and prestige.
Interviewed in New York after the race by dozens of North American journalists and from newspapers and TV channels from around the world, he expressed with a simultaneously ironic and sad smile, words that surprised, but that revealed his pain, for injustices that undoubtedly had endured:
– “As you see me, I am still blackalthough I am no longer poor, I don’t shine shoes or sell newspapers. And he added:
– You journalists want to hear my word and you tell me that millions of people will listen to my statements.
From this enormous North American city, I would like to ask you:
-“Mr. journalists: has running faster than other men made me a better person?
-And I answer them myself”; he went on to say:
“If I had not achieved this world record, many of those who will be listening to me, especially in my country Jamaica, neither my words, nor even my person, would have mattered. Thank you”.
His eyes clouded over and he couldn’t add another word.
I will not add anything Messrs. oy. for this contempt for the different.
And this devaluation, this underestimation, absurd by all accounts, is expressed by the mentally blind against beings who are simply different, which does not mean, in any way, that they are inferior.
And an additional comment regarding this sporting achievement.
Every time a mark is exceeded, this question arises: has the limit been reached?
The answer would be that just as there are no frontiers for human knowledge, neither can there be for physical overcoming.
And since we allude to physical overcoming, there is another recordno less valuable than that of Usain Bolt, also achieved in athletics and in 100m.
This other athlete, also an American, is called Marlon Shirley, he was 24 years old.
Shirley’s time, obtained on July 22, 2002, is eleven seconds 08 hundredths, that is to say that it registered 1 second and some hundredths further than Bolt, running at almost 40 km per hour.
And then what would be the feat? And why is it a record?
Well, because Shirley had part of her left leg amputated at age 5 and she helps herself run with a fiberglass prosthesis.
Participate only in competitions for disabled athletes.
His achievement will now be better understood.
Because I think that with his handicap, he is, in the 100 meters, just one second and one hundredth of the fastest man in the world.
Shirley’s is a beautiful story of sacrifice and will, placed at the service of a noble ideal.
And although “the will to succeed does not in itself grant victory, there is no doubt that it brings it closer”. “Because the need or negative circumstances do not give strength. But they find out…”
We know that there are goals that seem unattainable. But it is evident that there are men born to achieve them.
And an af. Ending for Shirley, the disabled athlete who fought for the seemingly impossible and made it possible:
“Many victories were achieved by men apparently defeated.”
Source: Ambito
David William is a talented author who has made a name for himself in the world of writing. He is a professional author who writes on a wide range of topics, from general interest to opinion news. David is currently working as a writer at 24 hours worlds where he brings his unique perspective and in-depth research to his articles, making them both informative and engaging.
