The longest standing individual track world records in athletics are all in female events, with the oldest mainstream men’s event track record being the men’s 1500m, which was set in 1998, by Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco. Meanwhile, quite a few female world records have stood since the 80s. These are: the 100m and 200m of 10.49 and 21.34 respectively, held by the United States’ Florence Griffith-Joyner or “Flo-Jo”, which were both set in 1988, the 400m of 47.60 by Marita Koch of Germany (then East Germany) which was set in 1985, and the oldest of all, the 800m of 1:53.28 set by Jarmila Kratochvilova of Czechia (Czechosolvakia at the time), set 40 years ago in 1983. There finally seems to be s sliver of hope of these records finally being broken, as another long standing record of the 80s, Yordanka Donkova’s (Bulgaria) record in the women’s 100m hurdles of 12.21, was finally broken in 2016 by Kendra Harrison of the United States with a time of 12.20s. This record was then lowered again to 12.12s last year at the World Championships by Tobi Amusan of Nigeria. These records have largely stood the test of time while the men’s have not mainly due to suspected drug interferences, with State Sponsored doping programs in the Eastern Bloc running rife in the 80s. There are cases that are so extreme, that it essentially changed their gender from female to male, the most widely known example of this being Heidi Krieger (now Andreas). However the point of this article is not to take a deep dive into the alleged doping itself, but the possibilities of these records finally being broken. Whereas some long standing records like El Guerrouj’s or Javier Sotomayor’s high jump world record are looked back upon with fondness as there was not nearly as much controversy surrounding those records, these records have held back women’s athletics, preventing some truly phenomenal athletes from reaching true the true superstar status that breaking a world record affords you.
Firstly, the two records held by Flo-Jo have been closer to being broken than ever before since 2021. With Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce running several sub 10.70 times in the 100m (9 times compared to Flo-Jo’s 3), and Elaine Thompson-Herah coming within 0.05s of tying it with a 10.54s clocking at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene in 2021. Prior to this Jamaican-led assault, only Carmelita Jeter had come within 0.15s of this, with a 10.64 clocking in 2009, which was run under perfect conditions with the maximum allowable tailwind of 2.0m/s to boot. Neither Thompson-Herah nor Fraser-Pryce have had anything close to perfect conditions in which to break this record in. In fact, Thompson-Herah broke Flo-Jo’s Olympic record in 2021, running into a headwind of -0.6 m/s, while also celebrating before the finish line. In the 200m, the assault has been more of a one woman job, with Shericka Jackson running 4 of the 6 fastest times ever, and coming with 0.07s of Flo-Jo’s record of 21.34s with the fastest of these times. Just like the others, she too has had to contend with headwinds or minimal tailwinds during her world record attempts. These records I suspect will be broken within the next year. The 400m and 800m records sadly still seem to be a little more out of reach, and seem set to continue to remain the oldest world records in the sport. in the 400m, Marita Koch’s time has not been approached within half a second by anyone since she broke the record. In fact, the only person that close enough was the previous record holder and still current 800m record holder, Kratochvilova, with a 47.99s clocking in 1983. Since then, France’s Marie-Jose Perec with a time of 48.25 when winning the Olympic title in 1996, and a dubious time of 48.14s by Salwa-Eid Nasser of Bahrain when winning the world title in 2019 have come closest (she was banned in 2020 for two years for drug test whereabouts failures in 2019, and thus her status as the great hope in this event has come into question). Shaunae Miller-Uibo, the imperious multiple global 400m champion from the Bahamas has managed a couple 48.3 clockings, but again this is close to a full second behind Koch’s time. It is not all doom and gloom however, as in the relays, we have seen the likes of Allyson Felix, and Sydney Mclaughin-Levrone run sub 48 second legs, showing that this incredible speed endurance is possible. Felix, now retired, ‘only’ had a personal best of 49.26 which was set at the same world championships as that phenomenal relay leg (Beijing 2015), and so her chance has gone, but McLaughlin-Levrone ran a time of 48.74 seconds earlier this year when winning the American title in what was her first year of competing in the flat 400m as a pro. With the return of Eid-Nasser, the rise of newly crowed world champion Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic who has also broken 49 seconds, and the ever-possible return of Miller-Uibo to her pet event has well, these women could all push each other to the ever elusive 48-second barrier. McLaughlin-Levrone is the best hope the event has had yet in breaking this record. Finally, the closest anyone has been in to breaking the 800m world record was Pamelo Jelimo of Kenya in 2008, with a time of 1:54.01s, 0.73s outside of the record. She was only 19 at the time, and although she had a couple truly dominant years, she sadly did not have the longest career at the highest level and was unable to replicate this form in the future. The only other woman to come within a second of this time since it was ran was Caster Semenya with a 1:54.25 in 2018. Her career has been blighted by legal issues and suspensions linked to her intersex condition, which is a whole different story. Sadly however, the fact remains that she lost a lot of her prime years battling for the right to compete, so even if she is ever allowed to compete again, one must think her chance to break the record is long gone as well. Just like in the 400m, there are a few prodigies that do give some hope. The three medalists from the event at this years World Championships are all 23 years old or younger. They are: Athing Mu (USA, bronze, with a PB of 1:55.04s), Keely Hodgkinson (UK, silver, with a PB of 1:55.77s) and Mary Moraa (Kenya, gold, with a PB of 1:56.03s, set when winning the title). The three of them have all shared any medals on offer over the past couple of years and consistently run 1:57s or lower. Due to their age and dominance of the event already, there stands to reason at least one of them (in my opinion. Mo), who will at least be able to come as close as Semenya or Jelimo once did.
These once seemingly unbreakable records from a dark period in the sport’s time are slowly but surely becoming attainable, and there is optimism that finally the record books will be re-written, and the female track stars can get the level of recognition that comes with being a world record holder that they and the sport deserve.