an interesting news article about the distribution of world records in sporting events & the recent 200m sprint at the Olympic Games in particular. the story links to several interactive graphs that highlight the lack of a normal distribution, as outliers are more prevalent due to the extreme tails of highly selected samples, where usual statistical patterns rarely hold.

[links: blogs.nytimes.com (overview article) & nytimes.com (interactive Bolt graphic) & nytimes.com (history of world records)]