The 39-Year-Old German Ghost Still Outrunning the Planet: Inside Women’s 400m World Record
If you want a snapshot of late-stage capitalism in fluorescent Lycra, watch the women’s 400 metres. The distance is short enough that the runners still look vaguely human—no skeletal marathon ghosts, no shot-putters shaped like vending machines—yet long enough for national mythmaking to be squeezed into forty-eight breathless seconds. The world record currently stands at…