Do Beamon-esque breakthroughs ever occur with sprinters at the higher levels? I mean truly magical moments where the guy, just for that one race, leaps to another level [and then back to normal]?
Has anybody seen this?
I understand that a long jumper is performing just one jump, and sprinters take 45 odd strides in the 100m, so the statistical deviation in one movement is going to be greater than in 45 movements, but nonetheless…
I think it happened already in sprinting…Atlanta 1996…200m final. Two perfomances were amazing, first and foremost MJ’s 19.32 was a science-fiction like time and probably won’t be matched any time soon (although I think Shawn Crawford will probably run 19.5 or so). But Frank Fredericks’ 19.68 was also a fantastic time in that race. Others maybe which come close (or could have): Ben Johnson '88, Maurice Greene 2001 WC.