The problem with the 4x100m is that he has to rely on three other sprinters to get a record.

Well, yeah. Plus there's this

(Hi Megan! It was good to meet you)

5 Races (Including Beijing), 5 golds, 5 world records.

Plus, he has another chance in the 4x100 relay over the weekend.

(Also, Hi Simon!)

5 Races (Including Beijing), 5 golds, 5 world records.

The man is a freak. No one that big should be able to start as well as he does.

Football is not really about unusual stamina but more about co-ordination and reflexive skills.

I can…

But “at least a month” to work out if that South African is actually male???

Which is because it's not a male/female binary answer. From Science of Sport:

I must clarify this – it's not an issue of male vs female, but of "entirely female", since she may possess secondary…

But “at least a month” to work out if that South African is actually male???

Agreed. One positive test and you never compete in professional sport again.

I think there's a bit of a scale. If we believe shane warne, he was just done for a pill that any non-professional sports person could have taken, which he did by mistake. That's pretty different (for me)…

So to all those sceptics, where is the evidence? BTW for the record I am one of those who thinks Dwayne Chambers should have been banned for life, I don't care how clean he is now

Agreed. One positive test and you never compete in professional sport again.

5.6 -…

Someone to carry his pills and add them to his muesli wouldn't be too hard.

At the Olympics he said it was McNuggets

Well, no, I meant medically. Drug regimens are pretty hard to keep straight at the best of times, let alone for people training/travelling/competing etc constantly, I'd have thought.

He probably could have a personal staff of half a dozen people and not notice the financial impact. Someone to carry his…

But wouldn't that require constantly keeping the balance exactly right, which seems like it wouldn't be that easy?

You mean like training constantly? :)

Well, no, I meant medically. Drug regimens are pretty hard to keep straight at the best of times, let alone for people training/travelling/competing etc constantly, I'd…

But wouldn't that require constantly keeping the balance exactly right, which seems like it wouldn't be that easy?

You mean like training constantly? :)

I might be naive, but I would like to believe there are people in the world who are just freakishly good, and not cheating.

Me too,…

What if a runner was on natural steroids when they took the baseline? Then they just have to monitor their levels so they don't move significantly out of the range.

But wouldn't that require constantly keeping the balance exactly right, which seems like it wouldn't be that easy?

I might…

Remember that they also have the younger athletes like Bolt's baseline blood samples which mean even if they take entirely natural human steroids it will show up.

What if a runner was on natural steroids when they took the baseline? Then they just have to monitor their levels so they…

Remember that they also have the younger athletes like Bolt's baseline blood samples which mean even if they…

And after listening to the BBC doucmentaries, it seems utterly predictable that it is sports particularly popular in Europe – athletics and cycling – that are the most utterly compromised ones.

Bollocks. Athletics is big in the US, and football is big in Europe, and yet athletics is druggy but…

I'd be astonished if, say, the NFL and NBA weren't hotbeds of steroid use.

My old PE teacher had the theory that in the next few decades there'll probably be a drug olympics set up and a non-drug

Nah... much easier to just say that if everyone does it (or we assume they do), it's not really cheating. Seriously — denial and/or enabling is…

In today's PC world, will people watch guys and girls take all kinds of crap and risk dying just for a few minutes of entertainment?

Two words: professional wrestling.

And after listening to the BBC doucmentaries, it seems utterly predictable that it is sports particularly popular in Europe – athletics and cycling – that are the most utterly compromised ones.

Why is that predictable? I'd expect a pretty simple correlation between sports where you can make a huge amount…

I think you're actually thinking of Marvels...

You're right you know, I am.

That reminds me of a comic book (I can't remember the title, but someone here will, it's set in the DC universe and is one of those nice painted ones that came out early in the century)

The story is told from the perspective of a non-superhero and at one…

I think we should agree that 'real world' is what happens to oneself. Anything you personally are not involved with might not be 'real world'. So we all have our own real worlds.

Seems fair enough in an infinite number of universes.

There is also an apposite Pratchett quote here…

Seems fair enough in an infinite number of universes.

So the tiger would have, in fact, have eaten Darvis Patton.

Reminds me of an old, old joke.

Emma, I am not sure that world-record sprinting counts as the real world . It's not something that ever happens to me – does it happen to you?

Dude, my base-line for comparison is role-playing. Let me add 'for very low values of real'.

I'm sure there's some hugely important reason for not allowing all professional athletes to dope themselves to the eyeballs with impunity, but I'm damned if I can think of what it is.

That reminds me of a comic book (I can't remember the title, but someone here will, it's set…

But look at Keith Richards!

Isn't he also a three pack a day smoker? Wouldn't be in the least surprised if the cigarettes were extending his life in some weird form of Satanic homoeopathy.

So the tiger would have, in fact, have eaten Darvis Patton.

That's right, you only have to run faster than the halfling. I knew that had real-world applications.

Living proof that mind altering drugs are much better for you than body altering ones.

The track record of doped up athletes from the 70s and 80s making it to 2009 isn’t a strong one.

But look at Keith Richards!

I'm sure there's some hugely important reason for not allowing all professional athletes to dope themselves to the eyeballs with impunity, but I'm damned if I can think of what it is.

The track record of doped up athletes from the 70s and 80s making it to 2009 isn’t a…

Humans will also win over really long distances. Which may just be because we're the only species dumb enough to invent the marathon, and also isn't much comfort when the tiger's already eaten you, but I guess it's something.

Well, it probably should be to Mr Bolt, because by the…

Terry Pratchett maintains there's an initial advantage while the quadruped gets those extra legs sort out.

Humans will also win over really long distances. Which may just be because we're the only species dumb enough to invent the marathon, and also isn't much comfort when the tiger's already eaten you,…

So yes, Tiger eats Bolt.

Well just hold on a minute there!

According to the IAAF the results were:

Usain Bolt
Tyson Gay
Asafa Powel
Daniel Bailey
Richard Thompson
Dwain Chambers
Marc Burns
Darvis Patton

So the tiger would have, in fact, have eaten Darvis Patton.

Over the past few…

So yes, Tiger eats Bolt.

It's for these incredibly useful pieces of information that the internet was built :)

The Siberian Tiger can run up to 50 miles per hour over the snow if they want to. That's only 10 miles per hours slower than the cheetah

50mph is roughly 22.4mps (metres per second). Bolt’s 100m was…

"if you could run that fast what would you do?" "What do you mean?" "Like you could just taunt a tiger and then run away"

That would not be wise. As fast as Bolt is, tigers are still about twice as fast.

Result – 100 metres final
1 Usain Bolt (Jam) 9.58secs (WR)
2 Tyson Gay (USA) 9.71
3 Asafa Powell (JAM) 9.84
4 Daniel Bailey (ANT) 9.93
5 Richard Thompson (TRI) 9.93
6 Dwain Chambers (Gbr) 10.00
7 Marc Burns (Tri) 10.00
8 Darvis Patton (USA) 10.34.

What I think is…