What must Usain do?

[noone]

1)He must show dominance over a much longer period of time. The reason I consider Carl Lewis the greatest is because he maintained his peak for 15 years.

2)It would help if he had great success in the 400. Part of Lewis' and Owens' mystique comes from their LJ performances.

3)This may be unfair and irrelevant, but it would certainly help if he were more humble.

[EPelle]

Bolt will first need to set personal records again in the 100m and 200m.

[parkerrclay]

19.32 is not as was not soft!

[paulthefan]

for starters he will have to navigate the pot holes that two previous 100m wr holders ran into.

[FrankS]

I think he would have to do something really different to jump over all the other contenders, and to hold the 100/200/400m records would be truly unprecedented. I think a lot of fans of longer distance running think that 100/200m are a bit soft, and like clinging to their comfort zones too much. For Usain to try for the 400m world record would show a real desire to "boldly go where no man [ or at least no 100m world record holder/Olympic Champ ] has gone before". I don't think that anyone would disagree that the 400m offers a greater challenge - both physically and mentally - for Usain than "merely" repeating his successes in the 100/200m.

[imaginative]

Among the possibilities, any of the following:

1. WR or global gold in the 400.

2. Another Olympic gold in 100/200.

3. Two individual WC golds in 100/200.

4. Increase time advantage to the number-two guy to > 0.1s in the 100 and 200.

Note: These are from my POV _sufficient_ conditions, not _necessary_
conditions.

Mellow Johnny is right about the ``runner'' vs. ``sprinter'' distinction.

[Mellow Johnny]

Re: What must Usain do?

The complete title of this thread is "What has Usain got to do if he wants to be regarded as the greatest runner of all time?". I feel continuing to set records at 100 and 200m and win global titles at those distances might not achieve that goal, but ...and I hate to be boring ... but, if he were to break the 400m record, he would certainly get my vote.

Already the greatest sprinter of all time in my opinion. Distance running and sprinting are too different (not to mention the differences within those groups as well- 800 v. 10K runners?) to ever say one person is the greatest "runner" of all time.

[FrankS]

The complete title of this thread is "What has Usain got to do if he wants to be regarded as the greatest runner of all time?". I feel continuing to set records at 100 and 200m and win global titles at those distances might not achieve that goal, but ...and I hate to be boring ... but, if he were to break the 400m record, he would certainly get my vote.