10-second barrier

The 10 -second mark is in use as a term, especially in athletics and describes the physical and psychological threshold to cope with the 100 - meter race of men in under ten seconds.

The underflow of the ten seconds were long regarded as the hallmark of great runners, but has been lost since the late 1990s in importance, as it is achieved by more and more sprinters.

History

The first 100 -meter runs less than ten seconds have been measured by hand with stopwatches. The International Association of Athletics Federations says, however, that measurement will be recognized only if the timer runs fully automatically, no prevailing wind speeds of about 2.0 m / s and no performance- enhancing drugs were used. Even errors in the determination of wind can therefore make a sprint measurement invalid.

Under these conditions, it was the American Jim Hines, who first broke the 10 -second mark on 14 October 1968. He won the 100 - meter sprint at the Summer Olympics in 1968 with 9.95 seconds, setting a new world record. Then went nearly nine years until the threshold was breached again. Silvio Leonard expired on 11 August 1977 by 9.98 seconds over the finish line. These times were both set at high altitude, thus favoring good results due to the lower air resistance. Carl Lewis was the first runner who had the merit to -high altitude when on May 14, 1983 only 9.97 seconds needed. Calvin Smith was the first runner to break the 10 -second mark twice when he reached on July 3 1983 9.93 seconds, undercutting the ten seconds are again in August the same year.

In the 1980s, the brand of a number of runners was undercut, the 100 meters final represented a new highlight of the competition at the World Championships in 1991. A total of six athletes ran under ten seconds in the same race, and Carl Lewis set with 9.86 seconds set a new world record. Meanwhile, the brand of runners of all six Continental Athletic Association was broken except South America, where the Brazilian Robson da Silva currently holds the record with exactly ten seconds.