Over time, two Olympic events have seen their world records drop in pace. We can move more quickly.

Get poised to smash that record.

It is inevitable that at least a few world records will be broken when top athletes vie for the highest honors at the Summer Olympics in Paris in 2024. However, the 100-meter dash and the 50-meter freestyle swim, two of the fastest events at the Olympics, haven’t increased in speed in over ten years. It’s hard to say how much quicker humans can travel on land or in the sea, even though records are meant to be broken.


On land, the 100-meter dash records for men and women date back to 1988 and 2009, respectively. Usain Bolt, a sprinter from Jamaica, broke his previous world record by less than a tenth of a second, finishing the race in under 9.58 seconds at a high speed of around 45 km/h (SN: 11/20/09). American sprinter Florence Griffith Joyner, who finished the distance in 10.49 seconds, now holds the women’s record.

faster sprints
Men’s 100-meter dash times have decreased by almost one second since records were first kept in 1912. With the first record being set in 1922, women are now finishing the race almost three seconds faster. The women’s record is in dispute, even though Florence Griffith Joyner currently holds it. New records are invalidated by winds above 2 meters per second. Although there was no wind that day, other races had recorded wind. Nevertheless, the record is unaltered.


Some record times were strangely higher than previous ones beginning in 1968. That is an indication of the shift to electronic timing, which is accurate to the tenth of a second. The manual times in the past were rounded to the closest tenth of a sec.

Research indicates that people may be able to run as fast as about 60 km/h based on human gait and muscle power. That is 5.625 seconds for 100 meters. But according to Ross Miller, a biomechanist at the University of Maryland in College Park, sprinting speed is mostly dependent on technique.

“Every step of a sprint should be as hard as you can,” advises Miller. “Maximum, instantaneous effort all the time.” Our maximum speed is determined by how little time we need to keep our feet off the ground in order to generate the force required to go forward.

According to Miller, it’s plausible that no one has achieved peak speed because no one has developed the necessary physical prowess. The quickest time for the 100-meter dash has decreased during the past century by one second for men and roughly three seconds for women. Alternatively, it could be because the proper person hasn’t had access to the training or hasn’t “put it all together yet in the perfect race.”

Humans find it far more difficult to move quickly in water. César Cielo Filho, a Brazilian swimmer, holds the men’s record in the 50-meter freestyle. His time in 2009 was 20.91 seconds, which is less than a quarter of Bolt’s record-breaking average running speed. The women’s record was set in 2023 by Swedish swimmer Sarah Sjöström, who finished the race in 23.61 seconds. The earliest records, set in the 1970s, were achieved in about three seconds less than both top times.

quicker swims
Since the start of record keeping in the late 1970s, the world records for both men and women in the 50-meter freestyle have decreased by roughly three seconds. When a new Speedo swimsuit collection hit the pools in 2008 and 2009, a wave of new records was set. The pricey material gave swimmers a speed advantage by compressing their bodies and increasing their buoyancy. 2010 saw the suits removed from the competition.


As water is more thicker than air, swimming is slower than running, according to Timothy Wei, a fluid dynamist at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Additionally, “this bowling ball is between each of our shoulders.” Additionally, this device generates a ton of drag.

The amount of expansion room for swimming speed is unknown. Eliminating drag on our imperfect frames can be achieved by swimming with the body parallel to the water’s surface. In order to propel themselves ahead, superfast freestyle swimmers also lift their elbows as high above the water as they can before abruptly lowering their arms to nearly perpendicular to the surface.

Wei explains, “If you can control your technique and raise your stroke rate to the maximum, that combination will get you going as fast as you can.”