All these records tend to fall. But he brought electricity and image to the event. If it it holds the test of time, then I'd put him down as greatest partly because of the achievement, and partly because of the entertainment he brought to it, especially in an era when nobody really cares about the olympics anymore. At least not like they did. His fall off at 30 would seem to indicate he's clean to me as I would think of that as natural for a track athlete, though honestly I don't know much about the dash and age drop off.
That's an interesting take I hadn't considered. Gatlin is a known juicer and look at his longevity. The big fallacy with PEDs is people think they make you stronger/faster, which isn't true. PEDs allow you to recover faster (so you can workout more or return from injury quicker). So if you can lift 7 days/wk without injury, you can get pretty buff. Bolt may be suffering the natural course of events at age 30 without PEDs. Going from 9.5 to 9.9 is not a "big drop off". It's one stride length. Running a 9.9 at age 30 is freaking impressive (for everybody not named Bolt). The dude still qualified for the finals of the World Championships making him top 8 in the world (and got 3rd place). If Bolt was running 11s, that is a big drop off and he wouldn't even qualify for Worlds. Oh, and Bolt is one of the greatest.
no it is totally true. you could inject anabolic steroids and be stronger without any extra exercise. it is why guys are stronger than girls
Yes, most likely haha, reports are showing he was out partying after as well. I think unless he had planned on running the Olympics again he probably regressed more than normal because the 2016 event was really it.
To add to your point, Michael Johnson started slipping at age 30. He competed until he was 33, but he was a shell of his former self and was only good at the 400m towards the end meaning that his faster races were his weakness at that age. Johnson was never found to be using any illegal substances. I think it all adds up about right. I'm sure Bolt lost his love for training thus his slower times recently. That was a nice farewell race he just had, barely lost. It's poetic enough to walk out of the game with your head held high. Great athlete.
Whenever you see someone doing something that has never been done before like 73 HR's or 7 TdF wins at a sport as basic and old as running, the dude was on something.
Or a once in a life time freaky gifted athlete, look at Bolt, have you ever seen a 100m athlete build like him?
I never saw a cyclist like Lance Armstrong, or a hitter like Bonds, or an Olympian like [insert athlete here].