Why do athletes slow down before they cross the line?

kav

Not talking about in heats when they just need to do enough to qualify, but in medal races, I've noticed a few times that they let their foot off the gas before they've actually crossed the line. Surely they should be coached to go full tilt until they've crossed the line?

Perhaps it's just a case of pure exhaustion, or maybe it's psychological. Thoughts?

Philly112

Maybe it's to savour the moment? Check out Alistair Brownlee in the triathlon. He walked across! Barely had enough speed to break the tape!

Phil

kav

That I can understand but what prompted my post was watching the relays - fast races where the top four were bunched up pretty close. In that case it didn't make sense to me for them to start trotting once the line comes into sight.

GBDG1

It's quite interesting, in the 100m they reach their peak speed at about 60m, from that point they are actually slowing down. One of the reasons that Bolt is so fast is that due to his long stride, he slows down slightly less than the others.

The human body can only maintain close to 100% exersion for a very short amount of time.

Here is some analysis of Bolt's 100m performance in Beijing that explains it better than I can

The Science of Sport: Usain Bolt 9.55s? Yeah, right

The Science of Sport: Analysis of Bolt's 9.58 WR

mjn

I don't think you can accuse Jeter on the last leg of the women's 4x100m relay of slowing down, she was like the terminator!

Sparky83

I noticed a fair few don't lean forward either, I can't remember the specific race but there was a women who was going to come third, but in the last 100m someone caught her up and they where neck and neck at the line, the only reason she lost out on a silver medal was the other girl leaned forward at the line.
Crazy

Andy58

I remember in one race the commentator mentioning that Bolt slowed down slightly when he realised he was outside World Record pace. He said that athletes "know" when they're at or better than WR pace and can then make a real effort to run through the line or dip slightly as they cross to achieve the very best time.
If they know they're outside WR time then they just do enough to finish and that's it

Edit - I think Bolt looked at the clock in his 200m final, realised he was outside the WR and eased off very slightly. In the 4 x 100m relay however, I think he was going for it all the way and sure enough got the WR

ldoodle

Money.

One theory, especially in Bolt's case, is that OR's/WR's trigger bonusses in sponsorships, so you'll find he only slightly beats them each time knowing he can go faster = bonus multiplier.

Why go your ultimate best and only trigger the bonus once, knowing you could never again beat the time.

loz

I noticed in a couple of the long distance running events outside of athletics such as the modern pentathalon that the runner stopped at the tape and then ceremonially broke it.

Perhaps they should reintroduce a tape in athletics, then Bolt could stop at the line and break it just before the others catch up

hdsport

I think that's called the Sergey Bubka method!