Lewis set world records in at least 3 world or Olympic 100m finals I believe
Lewis set world records but he didn’t totally redefine what people thought was humanly possible with those world records like Bolt did with his. That is the big difference.
Lewis set world records in at least 3 world or Olympic 100m finals I believe
Lewis set world records but he didn’t totally redefine what people thought was humanly possible with those world records like Bolt did with his. That is the big difference.
Wayne Gretzky probably wasn't the greatest hockey player of all time either. Michael Jordan isn't even in my top 5 all time in basketball. Pele who? Barry Sanders sucked at RB, should have been a long snapper.
Lewis set world records but he didn’t totally redefine what people thought was humanly possible with those world records like Bolt did with his. That is the big difference.
That was Bob Beamon.
For the long jump on a one time occasion. Bolt did it for both the 100m and 200m and completely dominated both events for the good part of a decade. Beamon did not even do that for one event.
Put him in modern shoes on a modern track with starting blocks and modern training & nutrition and he’d beat anyone
These things are unanswerable. But it's quite a stretch since Owens' best time was 10.2. How do you say with any precision what he could have run today?
Bolt was so, so dominant, to the extent that he's actually become underrated. He's a tenth of a second better than anyone else in history.
When Owens ran 10.2, here's the list of runners who had already run 10.3. Are they all 9.6 guys today?
Percy Williams Eddie Tolan Ralph Metcalfe Eulace Peacock Chris Berger Takayoshi Yoshioka (+2.5)
Most assertions that an old-timer would be the best today are based on vibes. In a Bolt-less world, maybe you'd place the hypothetical modern Owens at 9.65; given that Bolt exists, that changes to 9:55. None of that actually has to do with Owens as an real athlete, or where he'd slot in today (which is unknowable). It's about the ineffable feeling of greatness that Owens had and still has. In the pantheon of legendary 100m sprinters, Owens is at the top, with Bolt, and maybe one or two others.
But the idea that he'd still win today is a) probably wrong, b) impossible to know for sure, and c) not the point you were really making, anyway.