Almost everything in athletics has changed in the last hundred years: timing systems, training science, spikes, even the track surface. The men's 100 metres world record has moved, too — but lately, it has stopped. Usain Bolt's 9.58 seconds, set in Berlin on 16 August 2009, has now stood for seventeen years.
From 10.6 to 9.58
The first officially recognised world record dates back to 1912: 10.6 seconds. Records then fell in slow, steady steps as sprinting became more scientific. In 1968, at the high-altitude Mexico City Olympics, Jim Hines became the first man to run 9.95 — the first fully automatic-timed sub-10 mark. In 1999, Maurice Greene ran 9.79. Then came Bolt: 9.72 in May 2008, 9.69 at the Beijing Olympics that August, and finally 9.58 in Berlin the following year.
That last step — 0.16 seconds off Asafa Powell's 9.74 in about two years — is an outlier in the history of the event. Most records improve by hundredths.
Seventeen years is a long time
In the electronic-timing era, a new mark has usually arrived every few years — Hines's 9.95 in 1968 stood for 15 years, and that was the exception. Seventeen years without a new record is now the longest wait of that era. It suggests that Bolt's mark was not just the next step on the curve, but a genuine outlier: a combination of extraordinary talent (Bolt was 1.95 m tall — unusual for a sprinter), a perfect race and favourable conditions.
Is anyone getting close?
The current generation is running faster than almost any before it. In 2024 Kishane Thompson of Jamaica ran 9.75 at the Jamaican Championships — the fastest anyone had run in a decade, and sixth on the all-time list, still 0.17 seconds from Bolt. In 2025, Oblique Seville won the world title in Tokyo in a personal best of 9.77, ahead of Noah Lyles and Thompson.
And in 2026, at the U.S. championships, Lyles won in 9.79 — beating Thompson by 0.005 seconds in a race where, for the first time ever, all eight finalists ran under ten seconds. It was the deepest 100m ever run, and still nobody was within a tenth of the record.
What might move it?
- Conditions. Tailwind and altitude help, but a legal wind limit caps the benefit.
- Technology. Track surfaces and spikes have improved, but the gains are small next to the marathon's shoe revolution.
- Talent. Bolt combined a huge stride with an elite start and top speed of around 44.7 km/h. Athletes with that profile are rare.
What we know is that the field is deeper than ever: a race in which all eight finalists broke ten seconds had never happened before 2026. The record is not out of reach because of a wall; it is out of reach because Bolt's 2009 performance was extreme.
The bottom line
A record that stands for seventeen years does not mean a sport has stopped improving. It means the record itself is unusual. Every generation of sprinters since 2009 has run faster on average, and the race that finally produces a 9.57 will be measured against a hundred-year-old story of tiny steps and a single enormous one.
