The World's Fastest Human

Jamaica's Usain Bolt celebrates winning the 100-m final at the 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics, Berlin

Stefan Matzke / sampics / Corbis

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He shocked everyone but himself. Less than a year after blazing into history by setting a world record in the 100-m dash at the Beijing Olympics, Usain Bolt broke his own mark on Aug. 16 in Berlin. At the same site where American Jesse Owens upstaged Adolf Hitler 73 years ago, Bolt shaved more than a tenth of a second off his own record, clocking an absurd 9.58 seconds. Never shy about touting his talent, Bolt hinted at even greater successes ahead. "I think it will stop at 9.4, but you never know," he said. At this point, nothing seems impossible for the lanky, 22-year-old Jamaican, whose win cemented his place in track-and-field lore, and left no doubt that he owns the sport's most fabled title: World's Fastest Human.

Only 17 men have staked claim to the honor, which has grown in stature since Donald Lippincott became the first official world-record holder in the 100-m dash at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics. Lippincott, a student at the University of Pennsylvania, was an unlikely winner: a supplementary member of the U.S. Olympic team, he was allowed to compete in the event only after he agreed to pay his own way to Sweden. After shocking observers by running a 10.6 in a preliminary heat, Lippincott fizzled in the final, finishing third. Still, his mark stood until his compatriot, Charley Paddock, topped him by notching a 10.4 at a meet in California nine years later. The reigning Olympic champion, Paddock won attention as much for his prerace habits as for his speed; the colorful sprinter was renowned for quaffing a sherry mixed with raw egg before entering the blocks. (Read about Bolt's record-breaking performance in Beijing.)

In 1930, Percy Williams, a Canadian, became the first non-American to take the title. Six years later, Owens took the record back with a 10.2-second time — part of the epic performance in Berlin in which the sprinter notched four gold medals and punctured Hitler's vision of Aryan supremacy beneath the Fuhrer's scornful gaze.

Owens, who famously said the secret to his success was to "let my feet spend as little time on the ground as possible," helped usher in a fleet of impossibly swift African-American sprinters. Among then was Bob (Bullet) Hayes, who won the gold medal in the 100-m sprint at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo and recorded what some observers consider the top time ever achieved by a human with an 8.6 split in the 4 x 100-m relay. (Relay marks are faster than regular sprints because runners receive the baton while in motion, enabling them to accelerate quicker.) Hayes later parlayed his speed into a career as a wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys; his passing in 2002 prompted one columnist to remark that Death must have tied his shoelaces together to catch him. In the 1980s and '90s, Leroy Burrell and Carl Lewis both held the World's Fastest Human title twice, and Lewis, in particular, converted the title into endorsement riches. At the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, Canadian Donovan Bailey snatched the mantle by speeding to gold in 9.84 seconds, earning himself a spot in a 150-m duel with Michael Johnson, the gold-shoed sensation who set Atlanta ablaze by running the 200-m event in a record-setting 19.32 seconds. But the race, which took place in June 1997 at the Toronto Skydome, was an unmitigated bust; fans derided the event as a corporate showcase that sullied the sport, and Johnson pulled up lame with a quadriceps injury halfway through.

It was one in a series of recent low moments for sprinting's most exclusive fraternity. "I'll tell you this: once you become that, you can only go down," Hayes told Sports Illustrated in 2001. Shaving fractions of a second off a speed at which humans aren't built to go isn't easy, and several title holders have crumbled under the pressure. In 1988, Jamaican-born Canadian Ben Johnson clocked a scorching 9.79 at the Seoul Olympics, but quickly had his record expunged after testing positive for the anabolic steroid stanozolol. Johnson wasn't the last World's Fastest Human to succumb to the lure of steroids. American sprinter Justin Gatlin, who ran a 9.77 at a meet in Qatar, is serving a four-year suspension for doping, and Tim Montgomery — who called the title the "top of the food chain" in sports — was ensnared in the BALCO steroid scandal and stripped of his record. He is currently serving time in an Alabama prison for bank fraud and heroin distribution.

Thanks to Bolt, a 6 ft. 5 in. blur known to punctuate his victories with biceps curls, track finally has the savior seemingly capable of resurrecting its fortunes. Charismatic, telegenic and steroid-free — he has passed every test administered to him and attributed his win in Beijing to a steady diet of chicken nuggets — the colorful star has outsize talent and a personality to match. "I just blew my mind and blew the world's mind," Bolt said after racing to glory last August. On Aug. 16 he did it again.

See TIME's top 10 moments from the Beijing Olympics.