How Badly Would Usain Bolt Destroy the Best Sprinter of 1896?

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

Jamaica's Usain Bolt celebrates winning the men's 200-meter final at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

Compared with the athletes in the first modern Olympics, today’s gold medalists can run faster, swim stronger, and jump and throw farther. But how slow and weak were the champions of yore compared with the best of the 21^st century?

In which events could the cream of the crop from bygone eras keep up against their modern counterparts?

In the visualizations at the link, today's stars Usain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser are pitted against winners from past games. The eight contestants in each of the four events—the 100-meter dash, swimming’s 100-meter freestyle, the long jump, and the discus—were selected to bring together athletes from different Olympic eras. Chariots of Fire’s Harold Abrahams—the 100-meter gold medalist in 1924—is at the starting line with late-20^th-century great Carl Lewis. 


http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/fivering_circus/2012/07/olympics_interactive_how_would_the_champs_of_bygone_olympics_fare_against_today_s_best_sprinters_jumpers_throwers_and_swimmers_.html