Tall female sprinters

[Gabriella]

Just looking at the German women's junior 4x100m teams from the last two years and some are super tall. After checking their stats on the German Federations website, Jessie Maduka is 1.83 (6'0) Anna Lena Freese is 1.82, Alexandra Burghardt is 1.80 and Katarina Grompe is 1.74 (around 5'8). Ida Meyer is their fastest on paper and she is actually the smallest.

Compare their heights to former tall sprinters; depending on which source you use, Grace Jackson was 1.83, Katrin Krabbe 1.82, Heike Drechsler 1.81/1.82, Marie Jose Perec 1.78/1.80, Marion Jones 1.78. Merlene Ottey is around 1.74.

The top women over 100m at the moment are back to being shorter than average, Fraser Pryce is around 1.60 (5'3) Carmelita Jeter is down as 1.63, Allyson Felix is 1.68 (5'6) Kerron Stewart is the tallest at around 1.74-1.75 (5'8)

Bolt has shown that you can be tall and fast again, but is 6'0 too tall for a woman over 100m, considering women's legs are longer than mens on average? (so a 6'0 women's centre of gravity and hips would be higher than a 6'0 mans)

[Speedster]

Is it a strength power issue? Bolt matured and developed the necessary strength to get those long levers moving in the right way. If a taller female could do the same, I see no reason why no reason they wouldn't be as successful. The barriers to that are probably numerous though.

Part of the issue is coaching, taller leaner girls are directed to the longer sprints or jumps rather than taking time to work on the strength and technique necessary. Everything about Bolt said he would be a 2/4 man but he and Mill proved otherwise!

Looking at the taller women you mention, Marion and Merlene were as good at 60m as any of the current crop of shorter sprinters, which bucks the trend of taller athletes not being able to start. Krabbe's start in Tokyo proved you can be tall and start too, it was amazing, particularly with her slight build in her upper body, compared to someone like Jeter.

[tandfman]

Wilma Rudolph was about 5'll", which was quite tall for her day.

[Blues]

The athletes ranked 7th, 8th, & 9th on the T&FN 2012 100m World list are all relatively tall and should still have room to improve. (Blessing Okagbare at 5'11", Kerron as mentioned previously at 5'8", and Kimberlyn Duncan at 5'10")...

[JumboElliott]

Sanya is about 5'8, but she's a quarter miler.

[Peter Michaelson]

Wikipedia lists Pam Marshall at 1.78/5' 10".