Usain Bolt

Why did Usain Bolt win?

Firstly, its because of his legs. Being 6ft 5in tall allows Usain Bolt to take wider (and thus fewer) steps over a 100m race than his smaller rivals. On Sunday night he took 41 steps to win the Olympic final. Yohan Blake took 46 steps and Justin Gatlin took 42.5 steps.

Secondly, what makes Bolt special is that he also possesses great strength and flexibility, which allows him to accelerate quickly and maintain a very high top speed. As Dr Ross Tucker of The Science of Sport website explains: "I've not seen such an elastic runner before. Bolt's advantages stem from a superior stretch-shortening cycle function, which allows energy to be stored and used more effectively. We know from research that power output is proportional to the amount of energy that can be stored and released from the muscle-tendon junction during the muscle contraction."

Lastly, he had a quick reaction time, After the race, Bolt admitted that he was worried about a false start and so "sat on the blocks a bit" while he waited for the gun. His reaction time of 0.165sec, however, was actually faster than Blake (0.179sec) and Gatlin (0.178sec). As usual, Bolt was slower to build up to top speed than his nearest rivals, but his fast reaction time meant that although Gatlin was ahead of him early on, he was always within catching distance. Bolt could keep calm, and let his long legs do the rest.

These reasons provided the fulcrum to Bolt's olympic record and are the physics in his win.