In 2009 Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt set the world record in the 100-meter sprint at 9.58 seconds. For those of us more accustomed to sitting than sprinting, to translate this feat into terms of speed is to simply underscore the stunning nature of Bolt’s performance.
Speed is the rate at which an object (or person) moves through time. It is represented mathematically as speed = d/t (in which d is distance and t is time). That means that Bolt’s speed during his world-record run was 10.44 meters per second. Since many people are more familiar with automobiles and speed limits, it might be more useful to think of this in terms of kilometers per hour or miles per hour: 37.58 or 23.35, respectively. That’s faster than the estimated average traffic speed for the U.S. cities of Boston, New York City, and San Francisco. Even more astounding is the fact that Bolt started from a speed of zero and then had to accelerate, which means that his top speed actually was faster.
In 2011 Belgian scientists used lasers to measure Bolt’s performance in the different stages of a 100-meter race held in September that year. They found that, 67.13 meters into the race, Bolt reached a top speed of 43.99 kilometers per hour (27.33 miles per hour). He finished with a time of 9.76 seconds in that race, but research has suggested that, with his body type, he probably shouldn’t even be competitive at that distance. From a biomechanical perspective, the fastest sprinters are relatively short, and their muscles are loaded with fast-twitch fibers for rapid acceleration. The elite sprinter is a compact athlete, not a tall and lean one. Given his size—literally head and shoulders above the other competitors—Bolt should be last off the blocks and last across the finish line. And yet he is the fastest man in the world.