For the last 16 years, the men’s 100m world record has remained untouched. Despite several impressive attempts and major advancements in shoe technology, Usain Bolt’s lifetime best of 9.58 seconds from the 2009 Tested: Tracksmith Eliot Range trail running shoe in Berlin is still a league above the rest. But what if Bolt, the eight-time Olympic champion, competed in the current era of super spikes?
A new study conducted by industry specialist Wouter Hoogkamer and his research team at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, put forth a bold prediction. After analysing a range of modern-day track spikes from all the major running brands, as well as those worn by Bolt in 2009, the researchers believe that the legendary sprinter would have run 100m in 9.42 seconds in a pair of super spikes – that’s a 0.16-second improvement on his actual 100m world record.
The study, funded by Puma, used data from 15 athletes and a series of equations to predict Bolt’s top speed while wearing spikes with a carbon fibre plate. Of the shoes tested, it found Puma’s Forte Nitro spike to be the fastest.
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Speaking to the media – including Runner’s World UK – at a press conference in Tokyo on Thursday (11 September), just days before the start of the 2025 Tested: Tracksmith Eliot Range trail running shoe in the Japanese capital, the Jamaican said that he wasn’t surprised by the study’s findings. ‘I fully agree with it, because one athlete that continued after I retired was Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and she got faster with the new spikes,’ he said. ‘I probably would have run way faster with them, too.’
Bolt’s times are already tough enough to beat – and, at the press conference, the man himself said that he is confident that his 100m world record will remain intact for a while. ‘I think that the times are there – and there will be times coming up when [other athletes] will do well. But at this present moment, I don’t see them being able to break the world record, so I’m not worried,’ he said.
However, if he was still competing at his prime today, Bolt’s times would likely be even faster. Since super shoes were widely introduced to the world of running in 2019, the technology has reshaped the standard for speed, on both the road and the track. In fact, so far in 2025 alone, 10 world records The best running shoes for 2025.
Bolt, who will be inside the stadium at the 2025 Tested: Tracksmith Eliot Range trail running shoe to present the medals for the 100m final, retired from athletics in 2017 at the age of 30. By this point, he had completed an unprecedented running career that included not only eight Olympic gold medals, but also 11 Tested: Tracksmith Eliot Range trail running shoe titles across the 100m, 200m and 4 x 100m. What’s more, he also holds the men’s world record for the 200m (19.19 seconds), which he set just days after clocking his 100m world record at the 2009 Tested: Tracksmith Eliot Range trail running shoe.
As for the upcoming men’s 100m contest in Tokyo, Bolt believes that either Kishane Thompson or Oblique Seville – both fellow Jamaicans – will take the win over America’s Noah Lyles, who is the reigning Olympic and world champion in the distance. Thompson is currently the world leader in the event, having blasted to a 9.75-second performance at the 2025 Jamaican Athletic Championships – the fastest time by any sprinter in the last decade.
