The official wind reading for Usain Bolt’s 2008 Olympic 200-metre final was −0.9 m/s.
A negative wind reading means the runners faced a headwind rather than receiving a tailwind boost. Despite that resistance, Bolt ran 19.30 seconds, breaking the Olympic record and setting a world record in the Beijing final. His margin over the field was 0.66 seconds, one of the most dominant victories in Olympic sprint history.
Wind readings matter especially in sprinting because favorable wind can assist performance. Under athletics rules, a tailwind above +2.0 m/s prevents a sprint mark from counting as a legal record. Bolt’s −0.9 m/s reading was well within the legal range and made the performance even more striking: he produced a record in conditions that were not wind-assisted.
The same race also became famous for its revised medal order. Churandy Martina and Wallace Spearmon were disqualified, leaving Shawn Crawford with silver and Walter Dix with bronze.