When we discuss sprinters who have affected and helped the growth of athletics, we talk about Usain Bolt, Carl Lewis and most recently Noah Lyles. Yet one icon who changed and impacted athletics across many levels which we often forget to bring up in this conversation is Jamaica’s Asafa Powell. Powell catapulted into prominence winning the Jamaican 100-metre National Championship in 2003 and most importantly 2004 just before that years Olympics in Athens. He finished fifth in the Olympic final, but the path forward looked encouraging as Powell was only twenty-one. The following year Powell set a new Jamaican national record in the 100 metres recording a time of 9.84 seconds showing clear progress in his performance. This development saw Asafa Powell break the 100 metres world record in Athens on 14th June 2005 recording a time of 9.77 seconds.
2006 was Powell’s most successful season as he went on to win the 2006 Commonwealth Games 100-metre race as well as equalling his world record time on the 11th of June 2006 at the Gateshead International Stadium. Furthermore, Powell received the Track and Field Athlete of the Year award for 2006 showing how dominant he was across the campaign. However, past this year Powell will start to face a lot of criticism due to his lack of success at major championships.
In 2007 at the World Championships Powell finished third in the 100 metres behind United States’ Tyson Gay and Bahamas’ Derrick Atkins. Powell was leading the race to start with but when passed by Tyson Gay he was slammed for giving up and making Atkins pass him in the latter stages of the race. This led track legend Michael Johnson to state this after his race,
“You could see him thinking, I’m losing it, I’m losing it, and he just gave up at that point. That’s what was really disappointing. He just dropped his head”.
Asafa Powell would suffer from the stigma of failing at major championships for the rest of his career as it would be continually brought up when discussing his name.
On May 31st, 2008, Jamaican teammate Usain Bolt broke Powell’s 100-metre record running a time of 9.72 seconds in New York. Bolt broke the world record once again in the summer Olympics in Beijing 2008 finishing with a time of 9.69 seconds. Powell did compete in this race and finished a disappointing fifth which once again sparked questions about his mentality at major championships. Powell later on that year on September 2nd, 2008, clocked his personal best time of his career running a superb 9.72 seconds in Switzerland. Many believed at this point that potentially we could see even faster times from Powell in the future however injuries stifled the chances of this happening. Throughout the rest of his career, consistent injuries had a significant impact on his body which meant that Powell never reached the heights that many believed he could have achieved.
Despite that, why Powell is one that we shall never forget is due to how not only he influenced athletics on the track but also off the track. Powell is a Jamaican pioneer as he was the first Jamaican athlete to not go abroad and stay in Jamaica to train. This led a generation of Jamaican athletes with the likes of Usain Bolt, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Yohan Blake to all follow suits.
Powell is also considered to have one of the best running forms of all time making his powerful strides look effortless. For a 6’3 man weighing eighty-eight kilograms, he had an explosive start and great mechanics coming out of the blocks. This would lead to many sprinters studying his running style to improve their overall performance.
Powell is also nicknamed the ‘sub-10 king’ as he has run ninety-seven 100-metre races in under 10 seconds which is the most of all time. Powell is still currently the fourth fastest man of all time collecting a vast number of accolades during his career. His influence and magnitude across the world of athletics is why Asafa Powell is one we shall never forget.
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