At an Olympic Track Trials marked by close finishes, Jeffrey Porter’s dive across the line for third place in the 110-meter hurdles epitomized what it takes to qualify for the Olympic team. The lunge made the 0.06-second difference between the 26-year-old journeyman going to his first Games or staying home.

Or did it?

According to Ralph Reiff, the executive director of St. Vincent Sports Performance in Indianapolis, Ind., the best way to finish a race is by running—not flying—through the line.

“Speed, from a mechanical standpoint, is how much force you can put into the ground from your torso to your glutes to your upper leg, all the way to your big toe,” says Reiff. “If you put your force into the ground and follow that up by flying through the air and don’t drop your other foot, you start to decelerate.”

Reiff, who managed athlete care at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, likens it to a baseball player diving headfirst into first base to avoid being thrown out. “Rarely does that become a successful play,” says Reiff. “You lose all of your forward motion.”

While Porter’s dive played nicely in the media, those who re-watch the race can see that he was already across the finish line and then vaulted forward. “He had completed his task and then lunged and hyper-extended his front leg,” notes Reiff. “The safe way to get out of that was to jump forward, take the load off of that leg and dive.”

From following the same step pattern, Porter knew that after he passed the tenth hurdle he had six steps before the finish line. So while his surge seemed like an involuntary burst, it was more calculated than that. “On my sixth step, I let it go,” Porter says. “I don’t do it before that because I’m not close to the line. On the last step, if I need to go airborne I will do it.”

The “If I need to, I will do it,” mentality is what often propels someone to dive at the line. “The art of running is emotional,” says Reiff. “There becomes that point where you, as the competitor, feel compelled to do whatever you can do to give yourself an advantage.”

As a result of the close Olympic Trials races, Reiff believes we’ll see an increase in flying finishes next track season.

“But over time I think it will be proven that the higher percentages of people who go first, second and third are going to be people who drive their foot plant through the finish line,” he says. His advice for all athletes—from Olympians to high school students to recreational runners—is to pick a secondary point of finish 2 to 3 yards past the finish line and run through it so that you maintain your level of energy when you cross the actual finish line.

“That is optimal,” he says. “That is the science of running.”

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