What was the best world record so far in the 2008 olympics?

Question

What was the best world record so far in the 2008 olympics?

Answer 1

phelps' 8 golds in 8 tries with 7 world records and 1 olympic record or bolts run in the 100.  9.69 quitting the race with 20m to go

Answer 2

MICHAEL PHELPS

8 gold medals

Answer 3

Michael Phelps when he won the 200 by 5 seconds.....5 seconds in swimming....Think about it....CRAZY

Answer 4

Michael phelps and everything he did.

ANd the Jamaican bolt guy becuz he was actually celebrating during the run and he still won.

Answer 5

anythin Phelps made........id give mah left nut to be that guy!

Answer 6

Not even close, Usain Bolt smashing the 9.70 barrier in the 100 with room to spare is the most earthshaking record so far. The 100 is the center of the Olympics and a world record puts an exclamation point on the games. No doubt it got Zeus's attention unlike any other record.

Besides that the 100 is the glory event, the fact is in swimming, records fall literally all the time. Every 4 years they drop like flies. This is because competitive swimming is a very young sport, barely 100 years old, and every 4 years someone has improved on their technique and can go faster than anyone has before in international competition. Like Janet Evans, she wasn't really so great physically, she just had a better way of swimming. People can do that in swimming.

You can't do that in track. The sport goes back to medieval times, way before the Olympics, as a European tradition. Especially the mile but also sprints. The records are very hard to break, and when they are broken, it's not by much.

Janet Evans' last record in the 800 just fell, at 16 years it was swimming's oldest record. Now there is none nearly that old. Contrast that with these gold standards in athletics:

Long Jump: Mike Powell, 29' 2" (8.95m) set in 1991. The record it broke was set in the 1960's.

High Jump: Javier Sotomayor, 2.45 m in 1993.

Discus: Jurgen Schult, 1986.

Hammer Throw: Yuriy Sedikh, 1986.

4x100 relay: United States, 1992 and 1993

4x400 relay: United States, 1993

Pole Vault: Sergey Bubka, 1994

Triple Jump: 1995

400 hurdles: Kevin Young, 1992

There's more but I'm stopping there cause this already shows how many of track's most important events (about half) have world records older than anything in swimming.

And if that doesn't make the point, look at this list of all swimming records recognized by FINA.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_recor...

As you can see, not one of them was set before the year 2000.

While the 100 record has not gotten old much in this millenium, when it is lowered it's by little bits and pieces. And it only gets broken when there are enough great athetes around to challenge it. Carl Lewis took years to get to it, he needed Ben Johnson as an opponent first.

Usain Bolt's only opponent was the mistaken notion that Asafa Powell was there to race, that was enough to get 9.69... if Powell had showed up, Bolt would have gone even faster. It is a very rare thing to see a 100 like that, and rarer still in the Olympics.

Best record by far.

Answer 7

Bolt for sure, he jogged a new sprint record

Answer 8

Bolts 9.69 100M

It was the best because he did it slowing down.

Answer 9

swimming?

i think Michale Phelps has broke 7 world records and 1 olympic record!

Answer 10

bolts 100m sprint 9.68 and he was cruising

Answer 11

Bolt. He set a world record while looking away and bumping himself in the chest. Then he didn't stop after the finish line and went directly to hug his mother.