(It's)Just how fast was Usain Bolt's Gold Medal sprint. Let's put him on a slightly bigger stage, and see him race against every Olympic medalist since 1896. This imaginary race, assembled using runners' average speeds, reveals just how much faster sprinters have become.
這就是Usain Bolt的金牌短跑有多快。將他放在一個稍微大一點的舞台上，看看他和自1896年以來的每一位奧林匹克金牌得主賽跑。這場幻想的競賽，用跑者的平均速度彙整起來，展現出短跑選手變得比以前到底快了多少。
A few lanes over, we see another Usain Bolt, who dominated the field in Beijing in 2008. Almost ten feet back, Carl Lewis, Gold Medalist in Seoul in 1988, he won in 1984 too, while there're just a handful of sprinters on this track twice.
幾條跑道之外，我們看到另一位稱霸2008年北京奧運田徑場的Usain Bolt。幾乎在十英呎(約三公尺)之後是，Carl Lewis，1988年首爾奧運的金牌得主，他在1984年的奧運也贏得冠軍，而只有少數幾位短跑選手出現在這跑道上兩次。
As we go further back in time, we pass more of the fastest sprinters in history: Jim Hines, the first man to break ten seconds in the Olympics, Jesse Owens, who won four Golds in Berlin in 1936, Archie Hahn, Milwaukee Meteor, who won three events in 1904, and finally, near the end of this track, we have Tom Burke, who won Athens' in 1896. This time, twelve seconds, puts him more than sixty feet behind today's winner.
當我們再往前看，我們經過更多歷史上最快的短跑選手：Jim Hines，奧運中第一位破十秒的人，Jesse Owens，在1936年柏林奧運贏得四面金牌，Archie Hahn，「密爾瓦基流星」1904年贏了三個項目，然後最後，接近這條賽道的末端，我們有Tom Burke，他贏得1896年雅典奧運。這次，十二秒，使他落後於現今的贏家六十英呎(約二十公尺)以上的距離。
So what can we take away from this picture? For one, a lot of these sprinters are from the US. Although Americans have had rivalry with British sprinters and more recently Caribbean athletes, nearly half of these runners are Americans. But we can also see the glory is fleeting. Repeat performances are rare. There's been a new winner on the podium in all but three Olympics.
所以我們從這圖上可以得到什麼呢？其一，這些短跑選手中很多是來自於美國。雖然美國人一直與英國短跑選手以及較為近代的加勒比人運動員競爭，仍有將近一半的跑者是美國人。但我們也可以看到這榮耀是曇花一現的。很少看到重複奪冠。除了其中的三次之外，每次的奧運都有一位新的贏家站上頒獎台。
But to get a little bit more perspective, let's see how some of the America's best young sprinters would fit into this group. Here're the fastest kids at the hundred-metre dash in different ages, as recorded by the Amateur Athletic Association. Obviously, they are way behind today's athletes. But they are not as far behind as you might expect.
但為了要看得更全面一點，我們來看看一些美國最棒的年輕短跑選手在這團隊中排在什麼位置。這是不同年紀跑最快的孩子們的一百公尺短跑，由業餘田徑總會所記錄。很明顯的，他們大幅落後現今的運動員。但他們並沒有你想像中落後那麼多。
America's fastest eight-year-old did the hundred-metre dash in thirteen and half seconds, which would've put him less than a second off the third place in 1896, not bad for grade school. And the record for fifteen to sixteen-year-olds is a 10.27, good enough for a bronze as recently as 1980.
美國跑最快的八歲小孩一百公尺短跑只要十三秒半，這使他僅僅比1896年奧運的第三名慢不到一秒鐘，就小學生來說很不錯。而十五到十六歲組的紀錄是10.27秒，好得足以贏得近至1980年奧運的季軍。
Still, it's not like those Olympians were slow. It's been more than a century of improvements in nutrition, fitness, footwear and track surfaces: the difference between today's athletes and the fastest human there in the nineteenth century: just about three seconds.
儘管如此，不是那些前奧運選手很慢。在營養、體適能、鞋子和跑道表面上已經有超過一個世紀的進步：當代的運動員和那十九世紀最快的人的差異：只有大約三秒鐘。
