Thoughts & analysis
Chronological list of the sub-11 club
A chronological list of every sprinter in history – all 182 of them – who has broken 11 seconds for the women’s 100m, from 1977 to 2026.
Radcliffe’s 2:15:25 and the marathon’s changing landscape
A statistical analysis of Paula Radcliffe’s 2:15:25 world marathon record from 2003.
The statistical value of a sub-four-minute mile
What is a sub-four-minute mile really ‘worth’, and how does it compare to other disciplines in athletics?
Chronological list of the sub-10 club
A chronological list of every sprinter in history – all 232 of them – who has broken 10 seconds for the men’s 100m, from 1968 to 2026.
A governing body’s event coverage isn’t independent journalism. Nor is it supposed to be.
The real job of governing-body media – and why stronger official coverage need not come at the expense of independent journalism.
The mile, the myth and the men who made it
Back in May 2010, on the eve of the anniversary of Roger Bannister’s first sub-four-minute mile, I wrote what I thought was a mildly irreverent blog post. I didn’t understand the fuss. Why, I wondered, did athletics treat a 3:59 mile as though it bestowed some kind of sporting immortality, while equivalent – and sometimes […]
When race becomes the achievement
When Christophe Lemaître became the first white man to legally break 10 seconds for 100m in 2010, I was fascinated by it. It was unusual. It was historically noteworthy. Inevitably, it became the story. But even at the time, I remember thinking: hopefully this is where that story ends.
Best combined jumpers
After compiling the list of the fastest men’s and women’s all-round sprinters, I set about doing the same for jumpers. Well, ‘pole-less’ jumpers, as I’m not including the pole vault. Otherwise it would be a short list indeed. As was the case with the other lists, all of the points totals are based on the […]
Fastest women’s combined sprinters
I have set about trying to compile a definitive list of both the men’s and women’s all-round sprinters. This is based solely on PBs and doesn’t take medals into consideration, so the fairest and most widely-accepted method of creating such a list is by using the World Athletics scoring tables, which assign a points value […]
Fastest men’s combined sprinters
Building on the work done by Track and Field News with their list of the best all-round male sprinters (originally the top 100 but later reduced to 25), I’ve expanded it back up to 100 and, over the past few years, have tried to maintain and update it (with semi-regular frequency). I’ve also created an […]