Usain Bolt remains the best-ever sprinter the world has ever seen. His entry to the short races at the 2004 Athens Olympics Olympics and 2005 Helsinki Championships was marred by injuries, but he soon asserted himself and showed his mettle.

He first set a new world record in the 100-metre race on 31 May 2008 at the Reebok Grand Prix in New York, where he clocked 9.72 seconds. He shattered this record at the 2008 Beijing Olympics with a time of 9.69 seconds before eventually lowering it further a year later to 9.58 seconds at the Berlin Championships.

To date, no one has come close to running a time of 9.5 seconds, not even Bolt himself. This begs the question, was the run in Germany a fluke? Was it a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence? Will anyone ever break that record?

Apart from Bolt, Tyson Gay and Yohan Blake are the only other athletes to have run a 100-metre race in under 9.7 seconds, as captured by World Athletics Website. Since Bolt's retirement, the likes of Fred Kerley, Cristian Coleman, Trayvon Bromell, and Ferdinand Omanyala have emerged, but a sub-9.7 race seems like a tall order.

Will Bolt's record be broken?

The Sport Biomechanics at the University of Bath conducted a study to determine if any current athlete could ever be faster than Bolt. Scientists Polly McGuigan and Aki Salo believe that a combination of genetics and training will one day see someone run under 9 seconds.

"A combination of genetics and training would need to produce bum, thigh, and calf muscles which are a little bit stronger and faster than the current best sprinters. A muscle with a high proportion of large, fast-twitch muscle fibres will be able to generate larger amounts of force more quickly than a muscle with a lower proportion. It's safe to say that someone will break the nine-second barrier – not necessarily in our lifetime, but it will happen one day," they said, as quoted by Give Me Sport.

However, they issued a disclaimer that the current times might remain stagnant, which means Bolt's record might become harder to break.

Since no one named Usain Bolt has ever run below 9.6 seconds, smashing that record would take something extraordinary. This year's best time is 9.84 seconds, set by Commonwealth Champion Omanyala at last month's Kip Keino classic.