Merlene Ottey: Oh no she didn't!!!

to say that merlene ottey is a fierce sprint queen is a drastic understatement. the grand dame of track & field seems to shatter barriers everytime she steps onto the track. the jamaican native done did it again during a meeting held in her adopted nation at banska bystrica, slovakia. ottey threw down a 23.82 second performance while finishing 4th in the 200 meter dash. in order to grasp the magnitude of just how impressive that statistic is, you need to factor in another number: 46--her age. yup, forty-six years old. no other female athlete aged 45 or above has ever even recorded a time under 25 and a half seconds.

earlier this season, merlene clocked 11.34 seconds for the 100 meter dash--again, an unprecedented performance for an athlete of her age. her mark would have earned her 2nd place at the usa track & field masters national championships for the men's 45 and up finals. although ottey's first olympic experience came as a member of the jamaican 4x100 meter relay team in 1976, it seems an appearance at the 2008 beijing olympics could be in the cards--when she will be 48 years of age. regardless if she competes in beijing or not, she is still a tremendous inspiration.

at the "peak" or her athletic talent, ottey posted career bests of 10.74 in the 100 and 21.64 in the 200. flojo and marion jones are the only two females who have ever run faster...well, minus christine arron's flukey/almost-wind-aided 10.73 from 1998...anyway, with all the controversy that ceaselessly follows jones, and the one-hit-wonder-ness of flojo's exploits, merelene ottey has to be considered the greatest female sprinter of all time. quote it!