The Fastest Athletes in Sport

There are many different ways to judge speed in sport, we are looking at running speed in here but even that can be conflicting.  For example over very short distances 0-10 meters there is a good chance that pro racket sports players and most likely tennis players are the fastest, they must have lightening quick reactions and be able to cover the court in milli seconds.

So for arguments sake, let’s look at sports where people have to run 40 meters plus, which would rule in elite athletes in 100m, 200m sprints, Rugby Union, Rugby 7’s, Football (soccer) and NFL.

How amazing would it be to get all the below names lined up on a track for a race!

Athletics – Sprinting

Usain Bolt

He may be retired now but for years Bolt was the undisputed king of speed, he held the title of “Fastest man in the World” for years and is regarded as the greatest sprinter of all time.  His long standing world records may not be broken for a long time.

Bolt is the only sprinter to win Olympic 100 m and 200 m titles at three consecutive Olympics (2008, 2012 and 2016).  He also holds the 100 (9.58) and 200m (19.19) meter records which are unlikely to be broken anytime soon.

Noah Lyles

Lyles is an American sprinter born in Gainesville, Florida in 1997, and at only 22 years old is the fastest man in the world today.  He holds personal bests of 9.86 seconds for the 100 meters and 19.50 seconds for the 200 meters, also he’s the 300m indoor world record holder with a time of 31.87.

The Fastest field sports

Lyles has had a slump in his career of late and finished a disappointed third in the Tokyo Olympics.  But at the World Athletics Championships Oregon 22 Lyles made his return to the top retaining the world 200m title in 19.31.  Putting Lyles ahead of Johnson’s old record and third in the all-time list behind Bolt’s world record of 19.19 and Yohan Blake’s 19.26.

Christian Coleman

Christian Coleman Photo Credit – Flickr

US sprinter Christian Coleman is also worth mentioning, he won the 100m at the 2019 World Championships in Doha with a time of 9.76.  He holds personal records of 9.76 seconds for the 100 m and 19.85 for the 200 m, and is also the world indoor record holder for the 60-meter sprint with time of 6.34 seconds.

Fred Kerley

The US sprinter has dropped the 400m for the 100m and at Oregon 22 this has really paid off, he won the 100m final in a blistering quick time of 9.76, the joint 6th fastest time ever.   Kerley is currently the fastest man in the world over 100m.

The fastest non-motorised sport

NFL

It has been proven time and again that football is, as Vince Lombardi said, a game of inches.  But football is also a game of speed and thanks to computer chips inserted into players’ shoulder pads, we now know how fast they can run.  NFL players have to wear big pads and lots of gear, run on grass but always have some of the fastest athletes in sport.

The most physically challenging sports

Over the past 2 years there have been a few contenders for the fastest man in the NFL, the below 4 have gotten the most air play and for good reason.

Tyreek Hill – Kansas City Chiefs

Hill is consistently mentioned when is comes to the fastest in NFL after clocking 23.24 mph in his 2016 rookie season, he also has recorded track times of 10.19 seconds (100 meters), 20.14 seconds (200 meters) | 40 time: 4.24 seconds

Soccer

Again there are a lot of people who we could mention here from legends’ Ronaldo to Messi

Gareth Bale – Real Madrid

Real Madrid winger has been clocked at 36.9kph (35.7 mph) which is the fastest sprint speed recorded for any football player, he even won over Usain Bolt who in 2014 said that Bale is “the fastest (soccer player) in the world at the moment.”