Speed and sports fascinate me. Some sports don’t require running speed, so I won’t mention those in this blog post (except to give two examples: golf and bowling).
Who are the fastest athletes in their sport all time? I’ll start from the slowest to fastest leaders in their sport. There are countless sports so I’ll focus on just seven of them.
The “winner” will shock you but only because they get some help from their “shoes”.
Baseball: 18.70 mph by Billy Hamilton
Billy Hamilton was clocked at 30.1 ft/s or 18.70 mph.
NFL (American Football): 19.39 mph by John Ross
John Ross ran a 4.22 second 40-yard dash. This is about 19.39 mph.
Basketball: 19.8 mph by Allen Iverson.
It’s hard to find times for players unless they were also in track and field or football. On the basketball floor, Allen Iverson may have been the fastest at 19.8 mph.
Soccer: 23.6 mph by Kylian Mbappé.
Frenchman Kylian Mbappé runs at 23.6 mph.
Rugby: 23.91 mph by Rieko Ioane.
Rieko Ioane from New Zealand has been clocked at 10.69 m/s or 23.91 mph.
Track and Field: 27.78 mph by Usain Bolt.
The 100-meter race is where the fastest in the world title is given.
Usain Bolt’s highest speed reached was 27.78 mph. This wasn’t his average speed across 100 meters but his top speed.
Ice Hockey: 28.34 mph by Jonathan Drouin.
This is tricky since they don’t run, they skate. Jonathan Drouin was the fastest to skate around an ice rink. He did it in 2015 with a time of 13.013 seconds or 28.34 mph.
Keep in mind this is with having to do 4 turns.
The circumference of the path he took was around 165 meters. So that is about 12.67 m/s or 28.34 miles per hour (mph).
So, a hockey player is the fastest! But they get to use skates on ice.
We need to crown the fastest runner in every sport and have them all face off each year. The information behind this is all fuzzy and needs more time than I have.
We could clock people’s times ad does not need to put them all in one place at the same time. Even pickle ballers, golfers, and bowlers would be welcome