Reels tagged #athletics
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Sports
The fastest human ever hit 44.72 km/h
Usain Bolt reached that speed between 60 and 80 metres of his 9.58-second world record. No human has been timed faster on foot.
Sports
One athlete changed high jump forever by going backwards
Dick Fosbury cleared the bar head-first and face-up in 1968. Within a decade almost every jumper on Earth had copied him.
Sports
The high jump record has stood since 1993
Javier Sotomayor cleared 2.45 metres, higher than most doorframes, and no one has matched it in over thirty years.
Sports
Fibreglass poles added almost a metre to pole vault records
Bamboo and steel poles barely bent. Flexible poles store the run-up's energy and catapult the vaulter skyward.
Sports
The javelin was redesigned because throws got too long
By 1984 javelins were landing near the far end of stadiums, so the centre of gravity was moved forward to shorten flights.