Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt hardly fits the physical profile of most of his peers. At 6-feet-5, he towers over most other shorter, stockier runners. This seems to work for the 23-year-old Bolt, who recently set world records in the 100 meter and 200 meter races at the 12th World Track and Field Championships in Berlin.
Why he’s faster than his cohorts, despite being significantly taller, is the subject of much speculation among coaches, exercise physiologists and geneticists.
"Most sprinters are pretty small people," says Carl Foster, a professor in the department of exercise and sports science at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. "It’s a mechanical thing — runners have got to be able to generate the power to accelerate a body, and a bigger body is harder to accelerate than a smaller one."….Read More
