How Fast Was Usain Bolt Really? 27.79 mph

How fast was Usain Bolt really? Most people do the simple math: 100 meters in 9.58 seconds, so about 23.4 mph. The math checks out. The answer is still wrong. Over his fastest stretch, Bolt was much quicker than that, hitting 27.79 mph (44.72 km/h). That is faster than the speed limit on most residential streets, done on two legs. We will show you where in the race he hit that peak, why his reaction to the gun was actually poor, and why nobody has touched 9.58 in 17 years.

How fast was Usain Bolt really?

Usain Bolt's top speed was 27.79 mph (44.72 km/h), or 12.42 meters per second. He hit it during his 9.58 second world record on August 16, 2009 in Berlin, specifically between meter 60 and meter 80. Averaged across the full distance, he only clocks 23.35 mph.

Why 23.35 mph is the wrong answer

Every sprint starts at zero. Bolt needed the first 40 meters just to get up to speed. Average speed folds that slow start into the number and drags it down.

What happened after that is the interesting part. From meter 50 on, Bolt was running at close to full speed. And he held it. His last 10 meters were only about 0.02 seconds slower than his fastest 10. Most sprinters fade a lot more than that.

For context: at 27.79 mph, Bolt would have been ticketed in a 25 mph zone. The gap between his average and his peak is about 4.4 mph. Quote the average only, and you make the fastest human ever look almost a fifth slower than he was.

What 27.79 mph actually feels like

Rental e-scooters in most US cities are capped at around 15 mph. Bolt was going almost twice that. A casual cyclist rides at roughly 10 to 12 mph, a trained amateur on flat ground closer to 19 mph.

Bolt would have passed both of them. For about two seconds. That is what makes a sprint a sprint: a speed no human can hold. Stretch the distance out and the number collapses immediately.

Plot twist:

Bolt averaged almost the same speed over 200 meters as he did over 100. His 200m record of 19.19 seconds equals 23.31 mph. Over half the distance it was 23.35 mph. A difference of 0.04 mph, and the 200 has a curve in it.

Bolt reacted slower than almost everyone else

In the Berlin final, Bolt had the third slowest reaction to the starting gun: 0.146 seconds. Asafa Powell got out in 0.134 seconds, Tyson Gay in 0.144 seconds.

By meter 20, Bolt had already erased that deficit. From there the gap grew in every single segment. He did not win that race at the start. He won it in the middle.

The race in 10 meter chunks

According to the split times released by the IAAF, Bolt covered the first 10 meters in 1.74 seconds, reaction time included. His fastest 10 meters came between meter 60 and meter 70, in 0.81 seconds.

He ran the final 10 meters in 0.83 seconds. That leaves two hundredths of a second between his quickest chunk and his last one. Bolt did not slow down at the end. He just stopped speeding up.

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41 steps for 100 meters

Bolt covered the 100 meters in 41 steps. That is about 2.44 meters per step, roughly 8 feet. His step frequency was not especially high, around 4.28 steps per second.

Plenty of his rivals turned their legs over faster. Bolt won on length, not on cadence. At roughly 6 feet 5 inches, he was unusually tall for a sprinter. Coaches long treated that as a handicap, because tall runners accelerate worse. Bolt showed the opposite can work.

A cheetah would beat Bolt by 40 meters

A cheetah can reach 75 mph (120 km/h). That is nearly three times Bolt's peak. The clearest comparison comes from Sarah, a cheetah at the Cincinnati Zoo. In 2012 she ran 100 meters in 5.95 seconds and was clocked at around 61 mph.

When she crossed the line, Bolt would still have had about 40 meters to go. Even so, 27.79 mph on two legs is an extreme number. A typical recreational runner moves at roughly 6 to 7 mph.

Why nobody has gone faster since 2009

The record has stood since August 16, 2009, which is 17 years. Sprinting has moved on since then: better tracks, better spikes, better training data. Still nobody has gotten close to 9.58. Machines improve a lot faster, as our post on the fastest train in the world shows.

Bolt never matched the time himself either. His second best run was 9.63 seconds in the 2012 Olympic final in London. That is still the second fastest 100 meters ever run. Only one human has ever gone quicker, and it was him.

How fast was Usain Bolt in mph?▾

His top speed was 27.79 mph (44.72 km/h), measured between meter 60 and 80 of his 2009 world record run. Across the full 100 meters he averaged 23.35 mph. The gap exists because every sprint starts from a standstill.

How many meters per second did Usain Bolt run?▾

12.42 meters per second at his peak. Across the full distance he averaged 10.44 meters per second. He only held the peak for about a 20 meter stretch, then slowed very slightly through the finish.

When did Usain Bolt set the 100m world record?▾

On August 16, 2009 at the World Championships in Berlin. He ran 9.58 seconds, taking 0.11 seconds off his own record of 9.69 from the Beijing Olympics a year earlier. The record still stands today.

How many steps does Usain Bolt take in 100 meters?▾

41 steps, which works out to an average stride of 2.44 meters, about 8 feet. His step frequency of roughly 4.28 steps per second was actually lower than many rivals. His advantage came from stride length.

What was Usain Bolt's reaction time in the world record race?▾

0.146 seconds, the third slowest of all eight finalists. Asafa Powell reacted in 0.134 seconds and Tyson Gay in 0.144 seconds. Bolt had made up the entire deficit by the 20 meter mark.

Is a cheetah faster than Usain Bolt?▾

By a wide margin. A cheetah reaches up to 75 mph, nearly three times Bolt's peak. Sarah, a cheetah at the Cincinnati Zoo, ran 100 meters in 5.95 seconds in 2012. Bolt would still have had 40 meters left.

So the honest answer is 27.79 mph, not 23.4. Quote the average and you sell the fastest human in history short by almost a fifth. If numbers like these are your thing, take a look at how fast the Earth spins next. Then put your own instincts to the test with our sports estimation questions.