The New York Times has a new little game called Can You Beat Usain Bolt Out Of The Blocks? We will answer for you: Probably not. Jamaica’s Bolt brought home gold in the 100-meter sprint in Rio last night. He has now won gold in the 100-meter race for three consecutive Olympics, and he’s the first athlete to ever do so. He’s still the fastest man in the world, and he’s also the greatest sprinter in history. This time around, he ran the 100-meter in 9.81 seconds. His reaction time off of the starting blocks? Merely 0.155 seconds.
Try to beat it, if you dare. It’s hard. But Bolt is the fastest human being on the planet, and you are not. So the odds are not really in your favor. You can try beating his Beijing Olympics start time, which was 0.165. Six of his opponents in that race beat his sluggish reaction time, but then he still beat them all without breaking a sweat (okay, so he probably broke a sweat). Don’t try to cheat the system by guessing when you’re going to hear the gunshot and reacting early. A reaction time less than 0.1 seconds is considered a false start and will get you disqualified, you cheater.