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Comparing Beijing To The Best Of All Time

Posted by Jimmie R. Markham | August 19, 2008

For which event at these Beijing Olympics have we seen the best performance in comparison to the world record in that event? We’ve seen 3 world records so far (or should I say we haven’t seen three records so far, not if we’re relying on NBC TV for our Olympic viewing!), so one of these performances, by definition, has to be the best: 

M 100m  Usain Bolt JAM 9.69
W 3000mSC Gulnara Samitova-Galkina RUS 8:58.81
W PV Yelena Isinbayeva RUS 5.05

But which one is the best? I did an analysis of every event competed thus far at the Beijing Olympics and compared those performances to the world records for those events. Who came out on top? Gulnara Samitova-Galkina, whose 3000m steeplechase world record of 8:58.81 was 0.51% better than her previous world record of 9:01.59. Bolt was next. His 9.69 was 0.31% better than his previous world record of 9.72. Isinbayeva’s 5.05m mark was 0.20% better than her previous mark of 5.04m. Angelo Taylor’s impressive win in the men’s 400m hurdles was even more impressive than I had thought. His gold medal-winning time of 47.25 seconds was only 1% slower than Kevin Young’s world record of 46.78 seconds. That’s even better, percentage-wise, than Tirunesh Dibaba’s and Pamela Jelimo’s performances in the women’s 10000m and the women’s 800m, respectively. That’s saying something. Even more impressive than Young’s performance was Cameroon’s Françoise Mbango Etone, who won the gold medal in the women’s triple jump with a performance of 15.39m, just 0.71% slower than Inessa Kravets’ world record of 15.50m.

Which event fared the worst? That would be the discus throw. Stephanie Brown-Trafton’s gold medal-winning performance of 64.74m was 15.70% shorter than the world record of 76.80m,which was set by East Germany’s Gabriele Reinsch at the height of the Cold War when the East German government (and probably other governments as well) had a systematic doping program.

On the men’s side, Jürgen Schult, also of East Germany, had a world-record mark of 74.80m back in 1986. That mark is 10.99& better than Polish discus thrower Piotr Malachowski’s mark of 65.94m in the Beijing Olympics qualification round. Even though these, and other, marks are very suspect, they are still the official world records recognized by the IAAF, so we should probably recognize them as well.

Here’s the entire list. I’m sure the standings will change frequently, so I’ll keep it updated as the Games progress:  

Rank G Event Athlete NAT Mark WR Var.
1. W 3000mSC Gulnara Samitova-Galkina RUS 8:58.81 9:01.59 -0.51%
2. M 100m  Usain Bolt JAM 9.69 9.72 -0.31%
3. W PV Yelena Isinbayeva RUS 5.05 5.04 -0.20%
4. W TJ Françoise Mbango Etone CMR 15.39 15.50 0.71%
5. M 400mH Angelo Taylor USA 47.25 46.78 1.00%
6. W 10000m Tirunesh Dibaba ETH 29:54.66 29:31.78 1.29%
7. W 800m Pamela Jelimo KEN 1:54.87 1:53.28 1.40%
8. W 100mH LoLo Jones USA 12.43 12.21 1.80%
9. M 400m  LaShawn Merritt USA 44.12 43.18 2.18%
10. M 110mH David Oliver USA 13.16 12.87 2.25%
11. W 100m Shelly-Ann Fraser JAM 10.78 10.49 2.76%
12. M 10000m  Kenenisa Bekele ETH 27:01.17 26:17.53 2.77%
13. M 20kmRW Valeriy Borchin RUS 1:19:01 1:16:43 3.00%
14. W 400mH Sheena Tosta USA 54.07 52.34 3.31%
15. M 1500m  Rashid Ramzi BRN 3:32.89 3:26.00 3.34%
16. M 3000mSC Brimin Kiprop Kipruto KEN 8:10.34 7:53.63 3.53%
17. M HJ Andrey Silnov RUS 2.36 2.45 3.67%
18. M 200m  Usain Bolt JAM 20.09 19.32 3.99%
19. W 400m Christine Ohuruogu GBR 49.62 47.60 4.24%
20. M TJ Phillips Idowu GBR 17.44 18.29 4.65%
21. W HT Yipsi Moreno CUB 73.92 77.80 4.99%
22. W 5000m Meseret Defar ETH 14:56.32 14:11.15 5.31%
23. M HT Primož Kozmus SLO 82.02 86.74 5.44%
24. W JT Barbora Špotáková CZE 67.69 71.70 5.59%
25. W 200m Sherone Simpson JAM 22.60 21.34 5.90%
26. M LJ Irving Saladino PAN 8.34 8.95 6.82%
27. M SP Tomasz Majewski POL 21.51 23.12 6.96%
28. M DT Gerd Kanter EST 68.82 74.08 7.10%
29. W Hep. Nataliya Dobrynska UKR 6733 7291.00 7.65%
30. W Mar. Constantina Tomescu ROU 2:26:44 2:15:25 8.36%
31. W LJ Brittney Reese USA 6.87 7.52 8.64%
32. W SP Valerie Vili NZL 20.56 22.63 9.15%
33. W DT Stephanie Brown-Trafton USA 64.74 76.80 15.70%

 

Topics: Analysis, Blog, Jumps, Long Distance, Middle Distance, Multi-events, Olympic Games, Sprints/Hurdles, Throws |

3 Responses to “Comparing Beijing To The Best Of All Time”

  1. John 0. Says:
    August 18th, 2008 at 8:34 pm

    The steeple I feel can’t be compared to the rest of the world records. The Steeple is still a new event for women in terms of being run compared to other track and field events. This is the first time it has even been in the Olympics. I’m not saying the World Record is easy I’m saying that it has not gone through the test of time the other records has gone through. That can also be said when talking about the women’s pole vault.

  2. Jimmie R. Markham Says:
    August 18th, 2008 at 9:42 pm

    I hear you, John. But how else would one do a comparison of this type except to do so based on incremental improvements of the existing records? Would we need to weight the records based on degree of difficulty? Then it becomes a subjective analysis. Who (and how) would decide which records are more or less difficult?

  3. Jimmie R. Markham Says:
    August 18th, 2008 at 10:18 pm

    Something else to consider: the women’s steeplechase record is 13.76% slower than the men’s record. That’s not to far out of line with the women’s 5000m record, which is 12.39% slower than the men’s record.

    The women’s 800m record, which is probably tainted, is still 12.04% slower than the men’s record. Ana Quirot’s 1:54.82 probably should be the record. It is 13.56% slower than Wilson Kipketer’s 1:41.11. That’s almost exacly the same % variance as the steeplechase records.

    Same with the pole vault, which is 21.58% lower than the men’s record. By contrast, the high jump record is 17.22% lower, and then long jump is 19.02% shorter.

    I’d say the women’s pole vault record is “softer” than the steeplechase record, but not by too much.

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