The New Yorker asks that question and the author Charles Bethea extensively cites the LetsRun.com messageboard on this very topic.http://www.newyorker.com/news/sporting-scene/how-fast-would-usain-bolt-run-the-mile?intcid=mod-latestSadly, I must confess that in my reply to him I ripped the collective wisdom of this board.
Charles Bethea wrote:
The prevailing wisdom on the (LetsRun.com) thread was summed up best by a visitor using the handle “idiots,†who commented last July, “Are you guys insane??? One of the world’s best junior 400m runners and possibly the greatest 100m/200m runner ever and you think his mile is the same as any random high school kid running track? You really think because he sprints he has no aerobic fitness at all?â€
The co-founder of LetsRun.com, Robert Johnson, who is a former college cross-country coach, has a different view. “The question is a good one,†he said recently. “But those people on the site are all distance runners who have no idea what they are talking about.†Johnson is “very confident†that Bolt would not be able to break five minutes. “If that was the over/under, I’d mortgage my nonexistent house to try to bet up to six figures he was over that,†Johnson said. “He’s a total fast-twitch-muscle-fibre guy. To expect Bolt to be good at the mile simply because he is the world’s greatest sprinter would be like expecting a great three-hundred-and-twenty-pound N.F.L. offensive lineman to be good at playing running back simply because he’s a great football player. It’s ludicrous.â€
Wejo thinks he could break 5:00. I think he might ultimately be able to do it but no chance at all if he was forced to say run a mile at the Olympics.
The original thread on Bolts' mile ability is here:
http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=4159515