5 Reasons the Usain Bolt Era Stands Apart From Noah Lyles & Current Track & Field Usain Bolt’s sprint era remains unmatched, with records and dominance setting him apart from Noah Lyles and today’s co

When Usain Bolt sprinted across the finish line in Beijing in 2008, he did more than secure a gold medal. He won the 200 meters by 0.66 seconds, a margin that remains extraordinary for such a short race. That summer and the years that followed left the impression that one man could bend the sport to his will, lowering world records to 9.58 seconds in the 100 and 19.19 seconds in the 200 by 2009 at the World Championships in Germany. Those performances still stand today, fixed markers of a period that looked singular in athletics history.

Sixteen years later, the landscape is not the same. At the Paris Olympics in 2024, every man in the 100-meter final finished under 10 seconds. That had never happened before, and it revealed a field where parity has replaced hierarchy. The story is no lon