How fast are sprinters

At current top speeds of around 27 miles per hour, he says elite male sprinters like Usain Bolt put down roughly five times their body weight, in between. Just for fun, I ask Weyand what kind of numbers a sprinter would need to complete the meter dash in 9 seconds, on the nose. At those figures, a sprinter could, in theory, reach a maximum speed of But according to Weyand, no sprinter on Earth comes anywhere close to those numbers. That probably puts the theoretical limit for the meter dash closer to 9.

But Weyand, for his part, thinks athletes have plenty of room to improve. Then again, who knows how those conditions could change. When Thomas Burke coiled into a crouch at the starting line for the first Olympic meter dash, he did so without the speed-boosting benefits of modern nutrition, apparel, or training.

The average sprinting speed for many athletes is 24kmh 15mph. Running at that speed over m will give you a time of around 14 seconds. During the World Championships in Berlin. Usain Bolt set a world record time of 9. During the race, Usain Bolt top speed was It was accomplished between the 60m and 80m points of the race.

The average speed for the entire race was The reason the average is a lot slower than the top speed. But they also have genetics working in their fast-paced favor, says Colleen M. Brough, P. To run at the speeds most elite sprinters do, you need a certain amount of type II and IIx muscle fibers—the fast-twitch ones that provide, quick powerful movements but burn out quickly, says Brough. You can certainly train for a speedy finish. Power movements think jump squats and other plyometrics and strength training are important for those aspiring for speed—though, of course, a little cardio helps, too, Brough says.

With better butt strength comes a focus on muscle activation and stronger run form. The fastest runners tend to have a forefoot strike when you land on the front of your foot and a strong knee drive, says Brough.

According to a study , yes. Their results showed the critical biological limit is imposed by time — specifically, the very brief periods of time available to apply force to the ground while sprinting. In elite sprinters, foot-ground contact times are less than one-tenth of a second, and peak ground forces occur within less than one-twentieth of that second for the first instant of foot-ground contact. To figure out what limits how fast we can run, the researchers used a high-speed treadmill equipped to precisely measure the forces applied to its surface with each footfall.

Study participants then ran on the treadmill using different gaits, including hopping, and running forward and backwards as fast as they possibly could. The ground forces applied while hopping on one leg at top speed exceeded those applied during top-speed forward running by 30 percent or more.