Usain Bolt Accelerates to 44.72 km/h — Faster Than a Horse Gallops on Average

Usain Bolt's world record 100m sprint (9.58 seconds, set in 2009) contained a mind-boggling statistic. Between the 60m and 80m marks, Bolt reached a peak speed of 44.72 km/h (27.78 mph) — faster than the average horse gallops. A thoroughbred racehorse averages about 40–48 km/h over a full race.

To put this in perspective: Bolt covered 1 meter every 0.0958 seconds at his peak. His stride length was approximately 2.44 meters, and he took only about 41 strides to complete the entire 100 meters. He is the only athlete in history to hold both the 100m and 200m world records simultaneously.