What's the white man's record for the 100m?

[denberg]

1/ What's the white man's record for the 100m?

I think I'm right in saying it's 10.07 by Borzov in 1972. However, I'm not completely certain and I'd be grateful if anyone can correct me. Has any white man ever run under 10 dead?

[denberg]

I now believe it to have been Marian Woronin who ran 9.997. When this is rounded up it gives 10.00.

Has any white man ever run faster?

[King]

1/ What's the white man's record for the 100m?

I think I'm right in saying it's 10.07 by Borzov in 1972. However, I'm not completely certain and I'd be grateful if anyone can correct me. Has any white man ever run under 10 dead?

Borzov ran 100m in 10.14 sec in Munich Olympics final. May be he performed 10.07 in semi- or quaterfinals, but I'm not sure.

Coming back to the fastest white man... As I know Australian Patrick Johnson is white (his mother is Indigenous Australian, his father is Irish). His best is 9.93

[NikitaPankin]

____________100m__________________________
1. Patrick Johnson 9.93

First man not of West African descent ever to break 10 seconds over 100 metres. http://www.iaaf.org/athletes/athlete%3D130362/

2. Marian Woronin 10.00 ( 9 June, 1984 )
3. Pietro Mennea 10.01
4. Valery Borzov 10.07
....
____________200m__________________________
1. Pietro Mennea 19.72
2. Konstantinos Kenteris 19.85
3. Pietro Mennea 19.96
4. Pietro Mennea 19.96
5. Marcin Urbas 19.98

[NBSprinter]

They are fast. Yet, looking ahead I can se someone like Michael LeBlanc of Syracuse U deminishing those records.
After an injury filled first year at Syracuse, he's come back in his second year to dominate the field which included teammate Aulton Kohn. He ran a 10.40 in Big East semi-final (and that was after shutting down around the 65m mark, so who knows what he could have done!)

[breno]

im pretty sure that some guy ran 10.01 in the ukranian national championships about 10 years ago. he has never been heard of since.

would be interested if anyone could confirm that.

patrick johnson is a good sprinter but can not really be included in this topic. the guy has an aboriginal mother so is not white.

no white man has ever beaten 10 flat.

maybe craig pickering in the uk has the potential

[ScottHughes]

I think it is important to clarify what qualifies as a "white man." Some people have mixed genetics, and there are many countries outside Africa where the people are not neccessarily considered white.

[John fr Sweden]

1/ What's the white man's record for the 100m?

I think I'm right in saying it's 10.07 by Borzov in 1972. However, I'm not completely certain and I'd be grateful if anyone can correct me. Has any white man ever run under 10 dead?
Intresting discussion. I have actually written some academic papers about this kind of race thinking in sports (in the swedish language).
To begin with I would like to give you a probably more accurate list of white male top sprinters of all time.

1. Marian Woronin, Poland, 10,00
2. Pietro Mennea, Italy, 10,01
3. Matthew Shirvington, Australia 10,03
=3. Nicolas Macrozonaris, Canada 10,03
5. Frank Emmelmann, Germany (GDR) 10,06
6. Johan Rossouw, South Africa 10,06
7. Valeriy Borzov, Ukraine 10,07

I´m not sure about Rossouw. I just suppose he is white, since the white minority tend to dominate the sprinting events in South Africa, especially if you consider that the time was made back in the 1980´s.

As You can see there is no Patrick Johnson in the list. He could be, it´s a matter of what we all are thinking about when we are thinking about whiteness and non-whiteness. When I was writing about race thinking in sports I Learned about the american way of race segregation in peoples minds. There was an expression: "one drop rule", that indicated that anyone who wasnt "pure" white was more or less "doomed" to a black or some other non-white identity. I suspect the idea lives on these days i USA. I can asure you that it does in Europe to some extent. It,s rather silly and sometimes confusing, since you, if you keep your eyes open, often meet people from the very same family whith the same parents where a daughter look slightly african and her brother look entirely caucasion.

The only reason why we ask such questions wether who is the fastest white man goes back to the neurotic fascination about the black body, and what it can do. Nowbody asks question about black javelin throwers (and I wouldnt be able to make you a list), because there is no bizarr fascination of the white body.
There are no physical differences between whites and blacks that matters. It,s all in our minds.
I´ll give you one example:
USA have always been the dominating country in the 100 meters, but there are no american in the list above. How come? Is it because white americans can´t run or is it because they don´t think they can run. I believe the latter is the case, and that the injection of bad self inconfidence of oneself has reached white Europeans and australians in recent decades. And not the least, its in the minds of the coaches. I have a friend who was a world class pole vaulter until a couple of years ago. He got a athletic scolarship and went over to USA to study and train. When he came back I asked him why there were no black american pole vaulters of high standard (Lawrence Johnson excepted). He told me that he had seen some talents at the university, but the coach sent them away to the sprint team with the following words:
- Pole Vault is to complicated for them. They better do what they are best at.

That was that. I hope my spelling and grammar is´nt to bad. I am Swedish after all.

P.s. At his peak, Borzov would probably have made it under 10,00, if he had been pushed by his oponents. He was that good. d.s.

[Gizmo]

John from Sweden,

it is an interesting topic that we have such a segregation in the sport. Certain sports are dominated by certain 'races'. I think there are differences in how humans are brought up and their mind set, just like you mentioned in your post.

The opportunities given to the different athletes make a huge difference, if, like you mentioned, black university athletes are not given the chance to test and do pole jumps, and then there will be a lack of talent there.

Stereotyping is dangerous I think, and this should not be used when working with young talent. Follow their gifts and train them to be the best in what they have talent for.

[John fr Sweden]

John from Sweden,

it is an interesting topic that we have such a segregation in the sport. Certain sports are dominated by certain 'races'. I think there are differences in how humans are brought up and their mind set, just like you mentioned in your post.

The opportunities given to the different athletes make a huge difference, if, like you mentioned, black university athletes are not given the chance to test and do pole jumps, and then there will be a lack of talent there.

Stereotyping is dangerous I think, and this should not be used when working with young talent. Follow their gifts and train them to be the best in what they have talent for.

I think it´s a long way to go before we can stop racial stereotyping. Especially i sports. Anti racism is an important statement for every single swedish sport journalist, every coach or every athlete. But still they are stereotyping. In recent years we had to great 100 meter talents in Sweden. One is black and one is white. They have been on the same level, beating each other each and every time. The eyes of the journalists have been fixed on the black guy, using expressions like "He has an advantage because of his west african heritage". Many of these journalist probably barely know the existens of the white guy, not expecting him to develop.
The same phenomenum appears when our greatest sprinter Johan Wissman i mentioned. He is nr 6 in IAAF:s world ranking in 200m and nr 12 (and fast developing) in the 400m. He is very white and very blond and therefore not really entrusted. People just can´t believe that "a skinny white boy from Sweden" are able to do what he is doing (and about to do). Just to make things clear: He is not skinnier than any other sprinter on the curcuit.
What is said about Jeremy Wariner in USA I wonder.

[Bislett]

It is quite true what you are saying. The believe that a white man can be dominante in the 100 meter. We always seem to expect a African decendent to climb the podium after the race.

[Empirin]

They are fast. Yet, looking ahead I can se someone like Michael LeBlanc of Syracuse U deminishing those records.
After an injury filled first year at Syracuse, he's come back in his second year to dominate the field which included teammate Aulton Kohn. He ran a 10.40 in Big East semi-final (and that was after shutting down around the 65m mark, so who knows what he could have done!)

How about this guy?

Jeremy Wariner

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Wariner

[juandiegogutierrez]

you have to check out a white guy from South Africa like 4 years ago, he was supposed to break the 10 sec barrier

[John fr Sweden]

you have to check out a white guy from South Africa like 4 years ago, he was supposed to break the 10 sec barrier

I think you mean Morne Nagel. I made a indoor 6,48 in the 60m a couple of years ago, but have never run faster than 10,13 in the 100m. The south africans have a problem because there summer season is in january-februari. They are very often out o shape when they meet international competion.
In this case Morne Nagel is a typical south african. another thing is that he simply stopped to develop. The same thing happened to Matthew Shirvington of Australia, who came very close to break the 10 sec barrier when he was just twenty years old (10,03), but he never really made it. Now he is 29 and running much slower (Australia also have the same summer season problem).

[HongKong_Gaar]

I wonder why it is that so many stop developing, or better their times. It has been shown that even until at the age of 25, one can still improve the speed. Some, I can not remember, have even improved beyond that age.

[HongKong_Gaar]

Just another note as well on this. Have you seen any Asian 100 meters that are any good. Personnally I can not even remember one....

[John fr Sweden]

Just another note as well on this. Have you seen any Asian 100 meters that are any good. Personnally I can not even remember one....

Asahara from Japan is pretty good. I remember that he run a 10,02 in Oslo ones. I think the public interest for track and field is extremely low in Asia. In China table tennis is a much, much larger sport.

[Gizmo]

Do you think China will push through more athletes in the track and field now that they are hosting the Olympics?

[John fr Sweden]

Do you think China will push through more athletes in the track and field now that they are hosting the Olympics?

Yes they will be more succesful than ever before. But when it come to the sprints I think they still have a mental barrier, just like white europeans and americans. They have enormous population and a lot of unexposed talent. I ones read an article about a 16 year old chinese boy who ran 100m in about 10,5. Even his high school coach said that the boy should put his mind more on school studies, because his chances to become a world sprinter was not so good.