Everything we never expected to see begins to take shape.
Obscure records, records of the eighties, those of the iron curtain and the maneuvers of the athletes of the East are staggering.
Czechoslovakians, East Germans, Soviets, Ma Junren's Chinese -also Americans, like the late Florence Griffith-... iron women broke records, installed themselves at the top of the podium and from their pedestal contemplated the rest of the planet, which he idolized them as much as he envied them as he distrusted them.
Since then, there are records that still stand.
According to the universal tables, Florence Griffith continues to lead the 100 and 200. Marita Koch, the 400. Jarmila Kratochvilova, the 800. They are also followed by Natalia Lisovskaya, Stefka Kostadinova, Galina Chistiakova, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, the discus thrower Gabriele Reinsch... .
(...)
And?
Well, that era begins to falter.
And much of the blame lies with Femke Bol (22) and the school of Dutch sprinters, the one in which before, also in those eighties, Nelli Cooman shone.
What happens is that Femke Bol, the best prototype of a lineage in which Liekke Klaver and Liemarvin Bonemacia also stand out, has nothing to do with those, the hypermuscular athletes of the eighties. Femke Bol is all finesse and technique on tartan, the efficiency of a long femur, slim arms and an economical stride that glides over synthetic with the grace of a gazelle.
Femke Bol has spent half her life overcoming fences, chasing Sydney McLaughlin, the best hurdler of the present -the best athlete of 2022-, but now she has decided to vindicate herself. She is doing it this winter, without hurdles in between, in smooth and all sorts of distances.
Fifteen days ago, he broke the world record for the unusual 500 (1:05.63; it was owned by the Russian Olesya Krasnomovets, 1:06.31 from 2006), perhaps a warning of what was to come.
A week ago he took a first bite at the 400, signing 49.96: no athlete had dropped below 50 seconds for 19 years.
And now, in Lievin, it has gone further than ever.
Its elegant mechanics has projected it up to 49.26 seconds, not only three tenths below the 49.59 that Kratochvilova had worn for 41 years, but one step away from the 49-second barrier, perhaps another of those milestones unthinkable in other times, such as 2 o'clock. in the marathon (a milestone that we have already witnessed), the nine meters in length or the 2.50m in height (these two feats have not yet occurred).
(Now it takes Elaine Thompson or Athing Mu to multiply for other records of those dark times to fall).
