The Science of Speed

It's a Breeze

When is a world record not a world record? When it’s windy out. In sprints, the long jump and the triple jump a tailwind of greater than 2.1 meters per second (that’s 4.7 mph) nullifies a record time. In June, Tyson Gay ran the 100m in 9.68 seconds breaking the record by 0.04. Or so he thought. In fact, a stiff breeze meant Usain Bolt held onto his record while Gay cursed the Gods for breathing too hard. Anybody else find this absurd? With all the money poured into sports research and technology (see this series) can’t we find a more sophisticated way to account for Mother Nature?

A 1985 study calculated how much time wind can cut off a race (0.18 seconds over 100 m for a 2 m/s wind). That was 23 years ago. There’s even a ten cent Website nowadays that’ll calculate the advantage for any speed wind (Popular Science doesn’t vouch for its accuracy, but you get the point). Why not put some technology on the track that runs along with the athlete and provides an exact amount of time to add?

Even the wind readings are suspect from a scientific perspective. A single wind gauge is held halfway down the track—not exactly an adequate sample size. So, come on readers, develop something for London 2012 and we’ll profile it four years from now.