Every athlete desires to be the best sprinter ever. Usain Bolt is one such athlete who has attained the level of the fastest sprinter in the world. His performance is excellent and desirable which has made him to win so many gold medals in many Olympic Games. The building block of most top sprinters, Bolt in specific, has been their speed, body dimension, the stamina, and the power to move ahead of the race. In this essay, we shall evaluate Usain and the founding principles of his success. The physical look of an athlete carries the whole deciding factor of a sprinter. Usain Bolt, our athlete in question demonstrates good physical characteristics that include height, good body shape, and quick muscle twitching capabilities which all contribute to his best speed in the short races. It is this speed that he has majored in to make him the best sprinter world over. The details of these characteristics are discussed in the content below.
The Body Shape
The best sprinter athletes have linear body which makes them attain faster speed. Bolt, a sprinter in question portrays this linearity in his body stature. He has long strides and staunch upper muscles that make him to run faster as compared to other athletes. It is argued that the strides made by an athlete does not really decide their winning power because all athletes, short or tall make strides at a constant speed. However, Usain gets more advantages when it comes to striding because of his linear body and muscles. In addition, he has long strides that make him cover longer distances at a constant speed as the other athletes (Kawamori, Newton and Nosaka 1142). In order to finish a race, the time used to cover the distance required for the race is very important. The longer stride Usain is able to make therefore becomes an added advantage to him. During the race, Usain his long legs in the middle of the race to accelerate to high speed that he maintains through to the finish line. The long strides make him cover longer distance unlike most of his competitors with shorter strides. In return, he emerges the winner due to this advantage. Besides, his height of 6ft 5in is a great advantage. This height conforms to the scientific predictions of best sprinters. Furthermore, Usain Bolt is taller than the top world sprinter record breakers in racing. A case in point is the American sprinter Carl Lewis who is three inches shorter than Usain Bolt. His body shape puts him in this better position.
Fast Twitch Muscles
Usain Bolt is the best sprinter due to his origin as a Jamaican. According to Bartlett et al. (129), athletes from West Africa or with the West African origin like most of the Jamaican have an advantage of the fast twitching muscles. Bolt being of this origin therefore enjoys immensely the effect of the fast twitching muscles (Bartlet et al. 129). In his case, the muscle fibers contract very fast which gives him more advantage over other sprinters with different origin. Unfortunately, the muscles tire easily which also incapacitates him to run and win longer races. Moreover, to be a great sprinter like Usain Bolt, one needs to have leg muscles that are dominated by fast twitching fibers. The fibers contract the muscles so as to generate power that makes one to move quicker and strongly (Grabowski et al. 203). Watching Usain Bolt in most of his races, for example the 2008 Olympic summer game where he broke the world record, he completed the 100meter race in a span of 9.69seconds in the finals (Bolt 9). His power to win this race in such a shorter span was contributed by his leg muscles that contacted very fast in order to give him the power to move at such a quicker speed.
Above all, good training as evident in Usain Bolt also contributes to the development of these fast twitching muscles that are required to win the sprinter races. Actually, weight training makes a printer to have the ability to store energy in the form of creatine phosphate that is useful to make one win a race. It also installs in the sprinter the ability to release the power and the energy in that is required in the race so that they win.
Height
Height is a physical advantage that makes Usain bolt thrives over most of his rivals. Usain Bolt for instance has a 6ft 5in. Compared to most of his competitors like Gemili, Blake and Weir who are all below 185cm; Usain appears the tallest best sprinter. As a result the height here makes Usain to have longer or more lengthened strides. Usain typically takes approximately 41 steps over a 100m. In contrast, most of the elite sprinters make about 43 to 50 steps to complete the 100m race (Krzysztof and Mero 157). The number of strides that Usain makes in a 100m race makes him stand a better position to win the race. It makes him to cover short long distance in a span of short time. His world records set in the 100m and the 200m races indicates clearly that he can take shorter time to complete these races. The shorter time he takes is attributed to the long strides he makes in short time to cover long distances. For example, in the 2008 Olympic summer race, he set a world record of 9.69 seconds. Again at the 2009 Berlin athletic championship, he set a world record of 19.19 seconds in the 200m race and 9.58 seconds in the 100m race (Bolt 9). Typically, Usain has stood out to be the best athlete in the world in the short races. His best secret is in his long strides that give him advantage over other sprinters.
Speed
Speed is the actual factor that determines the best sprinters in the world. Usain Bolt has used the physics he has to balance his speed in the race so that he wins. First, he starts his race a little bit slower than other sprinters. He however adjusts his speed as the race continues. It is proper to understand that the muscle contractions have to be balanced well so that one does not get tired before the race is completed. Having studied this art, Usain Bolt preserves his energy to use it in the finish of the race.
According to the scientists, people with tall heights and strong muscles will have twitching muscles that fast contract but tires very fast (Majumdar and Robergs 489). Usain being tall and strong in muscles is vulnerable to suffer this effect hence he has to begin his races slower in order to preserve much energy. The energy preserved is then used in the finishing power of the race, something that makes him win. For instance, Usain in his 2011 world athletic championship race in Monaco maintained a slower race beginning in the 100m race. He however, released his energy almost towards the finish line where he stamped more on the ground.
Again, scientific discoveries have made it clear that in this 2011 100m race, Usain used a force of about 1000 pounds to strike the track (Krzysztof and Mero 151). This kind of force used is better in maintaining the stamina in the race so as to achieve a quicker accelerating force. In most of his races, the sprinter athlete has used this last time accelerating force to win his races.
Conclusion
The best world sprinters enjoy the power of the speed to win most of their races. In this paper, we have looked at speed as one of the most evidential factors that enable most sprinters to gain the track power. Other factors which are well dominated by Usain Bolt include his physical appearances. The athlete is tall and lean. The linearity for example makes him outstand most of his competitors. His linearity makes him gain the power to accelerate well along the track in order to achieve his best sprinter title. On the other hand, his height which is comparatively taller than other sprinter athletes also gives him an upper hand in the game. It is therefore, deducible that Usain Bolt’s physical look and his origin as a west African Jamaican gives him the advantage to outstanding as the best sprinter world over. He has won very many Olympic medal titles and set the best world record ever as illustrated above.
Works Cited
Bartlett, Jamie L., et al. "Activity and functions of the human gluteal muscles in walking, running, sprinting, and climbing." American journal of physical anthropology 153.1 (2014): 124-131.
Bolt, Usain. "Usain Bolt." Jamaican Gold (2012): 9.
Grabowski, Alena M., et al. "Running-specific prostheses limit ground-force during sprinting." Biology letters 6.2 (2010): 201-204.
Kawamori, Naoki, Robert Newton, and Ken Nosaka. "Effects of weighted sled towing on ground reaction force during the acceleration phase of sprint running." Journal of sports sciences 32.12 (2014): 1139-1145.
Krzysztof, Maćkała, and Antti Mero. "A kinematics analysis of three best 100 m performances ever." Journal of human kinetics 36.1 (2013): 149-160.
Majumdar, Aditi S., and Robert A. Robergs. "The science of speed: Determinants of performance in the 100 m sprint." International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching 6.3 (2011): 479-493.
