RIP Jim Hines (sprinter)

Shrews

I first got interested in athletics when I was about 7 or 8. I don't remember the 1972 Munich games at all but got interested somewhere between 72 and 76, so my first real Olympics was Montreal and I was into athletics and sport big time at that point aged 9.

Through the years I saw good sprinters fail to break Jim Hines' record plus of course Bob Beaman's record in the Long Jump. Valery Borzov, Alan Wells etc and I was always in wonder at how good he must have been to break the 10 second barrier. 

RIP a great sprinter who I was in awe of but had never seen any clip that showed his WR so he held a sot of mythical status with the younger me!

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65692022

Philly_Q

Sad news.  As it says in the BBC story, he held the world record until 1983, so although I hadn't seen coverage of the Mexico Olympics he was a somewhat famous name to me throughout my childhood, right up to the end of my teens.

I remember Calvin Smith, who eventually beat that world record - I always liked him because he was quite a small, skinny guy in an era when most sprinters were already big musclebound types.

RIP Mr Hines.