Ten Fastest Humans Who Did Not Use PEDS
Today, and back through the annals of time, the title of “World’s Fastest Human” has been revered, valued as highly as a claim to royalty. Does anybody remember who the King of Norway was during the 1930′s? Probably not, but ask which American athlete almost single-handedly took over the 1936 Summer Olympic Games Games, ostensibly a showcase for Hitler’s Germany, and the name “Jesse Owens” pops right out.
The cheetah is the fastest mammal on the planet, capable of short bursts in the 70mph range. Human sprinters, particularly 100-meter runners like Jamaica’s Usain Bolt, today’s “Fastest Human”, reach speeds of nearly 30mph. In the animal kingdom, that ranks us at about #30, comparable to house cats. For reference, the wildebeest clocks in at 50mph, an elk can hit 45mph, and then, of course, we have the Mongolian Wild Ass, capable of hitting the 40mph mark.
Top sprinters can live like royalty, too, and competition is fierce for the coveted spots among the elite. Hundredths-, even thousandths-, of-a-second, can be the razor-thin difference between riding the bus, and flying first-class. In order to gain the extra inch, and cut off a nano-second, athletes go to extraordinary lengths, some legal, others not-so-legal.
Performance Enhancing Drugs, or PEDS, are nothing new in the world of sports. Strychnine was used, with approval, in the 19th Century, to aid struggling Olympic marathon runners make it to the finish line. Ancient Greeks also used strychnine and hallucinogens to increase endurance.
Today, however, we have tried to establish a level field for competitors, after substance use and abuse warped that competition. Subsequent testing programs, along with severe penalties, have only slowed the use of these various substances.
Many great athletes, sprinters among them, have achieved great feats without the use of PEDS. So, which of our famous speedsters has retained the innocence we demand? We will discount un-founded rumor, presuming innocence til proven guilt, because no modern runner eludes the wide brush of innuendo.
- Usain Bolt: The aptly named Usain “Lightning” Bolt, current world-record holder, and reigning Olympic 100 metre champion, with a personal best time of 9.58 seconds.
- Asafa Powell: Powell held the world title for almost three years, lowering his own record twice, with a best time of 9.74.
- Tyson Gay: Gay has been running in the shadows of Bolt and Powell for a number of years,though he does own the second fastest 100 metre time in history, a blistering 9.69.
- Leroy Burrell: Twice set the world record, recording a 9.85 in 1994.
- Carl Lewis: Lewis ran 9.86 in 1991, and won 10 Olympic medals, for running and long-jumping.
- Calvin Smith: A contemporary of the more famous Carl Lewis, Smith was, nevertheless, one of the world’s top sprinters in the 1980′s, setting a world record 100 metre time of 9.93 in 1983
- Jim Hines: The first man to break the ten-second barrier, and he set a record time (9.95) in 1968, a record that stood for almost 15 years, until Smith broke the mark in 1983.
- Charles Greene: Greene ran in the same race that saw Jim Hines win, in record time, in 1968. Greene also dipped under ten-seconds in that race, in Sacramento, California. The race,known as “the Night of Speed”, also saw Ronnie Ray Smith, who finished third, break the til-then elusive ten-second mark.
- Bob Hayes: Known as “Bullet” Bob, Hayes set a 100 metre mark in the 1964 Olympics, and then went on to a Hall of Fame football career with the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys
- Jesse Owens: In the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Owens shined, winning four gold medals, which greatly annoyed Adolph Hitler, who had counted on the Olympics to be a triumphant display of Aryan supremacy.
We don’t know how much faster humans can run, but, doubtless, we will continue to idolize the great runners, whoever they are.
And the King of Norway from 1905-1957? He was the illustrious King Haakon VII.
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