In athletics, records are getting beaten all the time. It’s as if athletes these days are faster, stronger, and more capable than athletes from yesteryear. But is that actually true?
To test the theory, CBC pitted current sprinter Andre De Grasse against Jesse Owens, who won the 100m and 200m races at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin.
In 1936 Owens won with a time of 10.3 seconds. Whereas De Grasse is capable of running 100 meters in 9.9 seconds. However, make him run wearing Owens’ shoes on a dirt track with no starting blocks and the results are a little different.
This isn’t empirical evidence, of course, but it does suggest that had Owens and other athletes of his time had the equipment available to modern-day runners, they may have been able to compete.
