Who would win a race between the fastest men in 100 meter dash history?
The 100 meter dash is the main event of track and field, and just about everybody knows it. The Olympics and the World Championships invite all of the world’s fastest men to prove themselves in one race, and honestly that is what really determines who is the best. Usain Bolt has made it clear that he is the fastest man to ever walk the face of the earth. Bolt is so much better than anyone else has ever been, that it is almost unfair to compare them to his standard. So fans know that Bolt is the best, but the debate really begins for all the rest of the fast men. There is no consensus on who really is the next fastest man the world has ever seen. So I’m here to settle it once and for all. A virtual race between all of the world’s fastest men, just 1 race on one track, controlling for as many variables as we possibly can, to get a legitimate answer on where everyone ranks among the best in history.
Michael Jordan famously said that you can’t compare athletes from different eras. But that is a lie, at least in track and field because we actually can. That is what the clock is for, as well as the wind gauge. But the problem is running fast, is not the same thing, as doing it in the one race that you need to run. So to determine who gets invited to the ultimate 100 meter showdown, here are the ground rules.
How do you become one of the world’s fastest men?
To qualify for this race only performances that were run during an Olympic or World Championship final will count. Nothing else you did matters That is what made Usain Bolt so special. Not the fact that he broke World Records. It is because he did it with the entire world watching on the biggest stage! If you can’t do it when the lights are on, and it is time to perform, than you might as well not be able to do it all. That is the reason why Asafa Powell will not make this list.
He is not the only one to get cut. Of all the men who have ever broken 9.80 wind legal, Trayvon Bromell, Ferdinand Omanyala, and Nesta Carter have never run close to that fast in a championship final. I’m not saying they aren’t fast, but they clearly aren’t fast enough when they actually race against other fast people.
You only get one performance to be considered. The fastest performance that you ever run in a world final. But the time you ran isn’t exactly the time you are going to get in this race. Because we have got to make everything as fair as possible. So times will be converted using the “Brian Mac Sports Coach Calculator” to control for the wind gauge, and altitude as determining factors. That means Usain Bolt’s 9.58 with a positive .9 wind in Berlin, Germany which is at an altitude of 34 meters, is actually converted up to 9.63. Either way, that is still way faster than any other man has ever run under any conditions!
This is the truth without any photoshop about how all the world’s fastest men would actually compete if they lined up against each other, and ran their absolute best in one race. So we can determine who is really the fastest men ever, and in what order. Of course we all know who is going to win. But the race for the silver, bronze, and everything beyond is wilder than you could ever imagine.
Which sprinters qualify?
As for who actually makes the field for this ultimate 100 meter dash, here is the list from slowest to fastest. To get the final spot to race in lane 9, we have a battle between several men. The former World Record Holders Carl Lewis from 1991, Donovan Bailey from 1996, Bruny Surin from 1999, and Fred Kerley for his victory in 2022. They all ran 9.84 to 9.86 to make this list, but only 1 man can edge out the others to run in lane 9. The tie breaker was simple, Donovan Bailey, broke the World Record, in 9.84 and won the Olympics. So he gets the spot in lane 9 to him.
But lane 8 goes surprisingly to another American man, Noah Lyles for his performance in the 2023 World Championship. He ran 9.83 to punch his ticket into the race, and his claim to being one of the World’s fastest men to ever run the 100. Believe it or not, only seven men have ever run faster than him in a major world final.
Lane 1 goes to Lamont Marcell Jacobs for his Olympic gold in 2021. He is the only European man to make this field, which is a big accomplishment. So at the very least we can say he’s the fastest man in European history. Yet lane 7 goes to Maurice Greene, the man who was box office on the track before Bolt even started running the event. He’s an Olympic and World Champion who ran 9.80 in 1999. Edging him out for lane 2 is Justin Gatlin. He’s an Olympic champion from 2004, but that’s not how he made this list. He lost in the Olympics in 2012 but ran 9.79 to do it, and we all know who was out in front in that race. But Christian Coleman deserves to be here in lane 6, because he ran 9.76 to win the world championships in 2019. Ironically he beat Gatlin to do it, by a wide margin. So regardless of what you think about him, the clock is saying he is the fastest man in the game right now.
By now you know the last 3 names. Yohan Blake gets lane 3, because he lost to Bolt, but beat Gatlin running 9.75 in the 2012 Olympics. And Tyson Gay earns lane 5 because he happened to show up to race Bolt in 2009 when he ran the World Record. Tyson still ran 9.71 which is really fast, he just kept losing to somebody else his entire career, so he has little hardware to show for it. And obviously Usain Bolt runs in lane 4 because he deserves it. We already know he’s going to win, but what you don’t know is who is going to be next in the race.
With all of these fast men running 1 race on one track, we are going to assume they run as well as their absolute best performance to this point. But they are all doing it with no altitude or wind factors to factor in. A simple track race with 5 American men, 2 Jamaicans, 1 Italian, and 1 Canadian. So here is the race as it would actually happen.
The ultimate 100 meter dash showdown
Donovan Bailey would get blown out early and never catch up to the field finishing in 9.89. But Justin Gatlin would have never had a chance, chasing after all the fast men like he did throughout the entire Usain Bolt era. He would finish in 9.87, but this is where things get interesting. Because had we given lane 9 to Fred Kerley he actually would have beat Gatlin running 9.86 to do it. But right in front of them is Yohan Blake who is tied for second on the all-time list but only finishes 7th in this race! Or maybe he is 6th depending on how you look at it. Because both him and Noah Lyles would land at 9.83 seconds dead on.
The same thing happens again in the race for forth and fifth. Maurice Greene and Lamont Marcell Jacobs both go 9.81. But third place is not in doubt. Christian Coleman broke away from the field early, and is able to hold off everyone I just mentioned after running 9.79 seconds. So the man in second place, knows that feeling all too well. Because Tyson Gay finishes second overall in the ultimate 100 meter champion, going 9.76 to do it. His entire career as a pro sprinter he never won an Olympic medal, and only has 1 world championship gold in the 100 meter dash, from 2007. Which is conveniently a year before the winner of this race figured out how to run the event.
The Bottom Line
After all that Bolt dominates the field. He ran 9.63 to do it, a full tenth of a second faster than anyone. But that is not telling the whole story. Any of his races from 2008, 2009, or 2012 would still have won this race without it being a contest. Bolt is so good, that if everyone in history runs there absolute best, they still don’t have a chance, as long as he shows up as himself: Usain “Lightning” Bolt.
So now we can finally end the debate for who really belongs on the list of the fastest men in history. Or at the very least we can have something legitimate to go off of when we start to argue. You don’t have to like it but the facts are the facts, because to win in track and field you have to not only be the best, but also beat the best. The men on this list figured out how to perform better than anyone else, when the entire World was watching.
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