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Florence Griffith-Joyner
Florence Griffith-Joyner, known universally as "Flo-Jo," set the women's 100m and 200m world records in 1988 — 10.49 seconds and 21.34 seconds respectively — marks that remain unbroken nearly four decades later, longer than almost any other standing world record in track and field for either gender. Her 100m record, set at the US Olympic Trials in Indianapolis, was run at a wind reading some experts have questioned as inaccurate given conditions on other lanes that day, but it has never been overturned and remains the official mark, still faster than any woman has run in the 37 years since. Flo-Jo's style off the track became nearly as famous as her running — long, decorated fingernails and colorful, self-designed one-legged running suits gave her a distinct visual identity that helped make her one of the most recognizable athletes of the 1988 Seoul Olympics, where she won three gold medals. She retired suddenly in 1989 at the height of her fame, citing a desire to pursue business and creative interests, and her sudden 1998 death at 38 from a seizure only deepened the mystique around a career whose defining records have now stood, unchallenged, for longer than she was alive after setting them.
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Usain Bolt
Usain Bolt became the first man to hold both the 100m and 200m world records simultaneously while also holding all three Olympic sprint golds — 100m, 200m, and 4x100m relay — at three consecutive Olympics, 2008, 2012, and 2016, a "triple-triple" no sprinter had ever approached before him. His 100m world record of 9.58 seconds, set at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, remains untouched more than 15 years later, and his 200m mark of 19.19 seconds from the same meet has proven similarly durable against a generation of sprinters who've trained specifically to chase it. Standing 6-foot-5, Bolt was considered physically unconventional for a sprinter — most elite sprinters run shorter and more compact — and his ability to combine that height with an explosive start and top-end speed reshaped what coaches believed was possible for a sprinter's build. Nicknamed "Lightning Bolt" for both his name and his signature lightning-pose celebration, Bolt retired in 2017 having lost a single individual 100m final at a global championship in nearly a decade of competition, a level of championship-meet consistency that, combined with his world records, is why he's almost universally cited as track and field's greatest sprinter.
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