Usain Bolt’s 100 metres best of 9.58 seconds may seem to pass in a flash, but it is still plenty of time for other activities.
In the time it takes the average person (250 words per minute) to read this, Bolt could have run nearly 10 world record races…
TYRE CHANGE
The Williams Formula One team, and some of their rivals, could change the four tyres on nearly five of their cars in that time. At the European Grand Prix in Baku in June Williams did a complete tyre change on Felipe Massa’s car in 1.92 seconds. A hospital in Wales has approached the team to see if it can learn anything to speed up procedures.
COUNT THE BEATS
The average human’s heart beats between 60 and 100 times a minute, depending on his or her health. Ultra-fit athletes like Bolt and Britain’s long distance runner Mo Farah bring it down to about 33 beats a second. So Bolt would only register 316 beats if he could stay calm while watching his own world record. Most of us will blink about twice during the race.
PILING UP SPORTS CASH
According to Forbes magazine, Real Madrid and Portugal star footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, the world’s top paid sportsman, earns about $56 million a year from earnings and endorsements, or $17.5 in the time of a Bolt world record.
Bolt, 32 on the world sporting list with $32.5 million a year, gets about $9.9 for every 9.58 seconds. Don’t ask how much the average person earns.
Cristiano Ronaldo.
A BEER AND A HOT DOG?
Zhang Fengzhong in China says he can sink 640 millilitres (1.3 pints) of beer in just 3.17 seconds and a 1.2 carton of milk in seven seconds – enough time to drink and watch Bolt hit the tape. Japan’s Takeru Kobayashi, who once ate 110 bunless hotdogs in 10 minutes, could get through 1.75 hotdogs watching Bolt – probably without blinking.
HARE VS SNAIL
If you lined up Bolt against Dennis Kimetto of Kenya when he broke the world marathon record, Kimetto would have covered 54 metres by the time Bolt had set his record. Kimetto ran the 42.195 kilometer course in 2hr 2min 57sec in Berlin in September 2014. World 50km walk record holder Yohann Diniz of France (3hr 32min 33sec) would have paced 37.5m.
