Is Usain Bolt faster than a cheetah?

The Summer Olympic Games have begun with bipedal athletes, mostly hairless, and vying for a gold medal. But how will multi-record runners, such as the world's fastest man Usain Bolt - Top 10 Fastest People in the world, stack up against the wild side of the animal kingdom?

As it turns out, Usain Bolt will be left in the dust by greyhounds, cheetahs, and pronghorns (if he puts his four legs up in a challenge), Craig Sharp of the Center for Sports Medicine and Child Performance. people at Brunel University wrote in a commentary in the journal Veterinary Record.

Sharp points out that animal sports can put many human Olympic athletes to shame, noting that humans will take home the gold prize in flexibility sports at the Summer Olympic Games.

Don't worry, though, our two-legged players will run the Dromedary for money, at least the fastest of us. The human athlete reached a top speed of 23.4 miles per hour (37.6 kilometers per hour), says Sharp. Dromedary camel? This ungulate reaches speeds of 22 mph (35.3 km/h). [ Quick look! Top 10 Fastest Animals in the world ]

A cheetah will run at 64 mph (104 km/h), which is about twice as fast as the world's top sprinters, while the pronghorn will likely be at on the medal stand, reaching a speed of 55 mph (89 km/h). Even his fastest bird, the ostrich, was able to take home a medal in one of the running events, at about 40 mph (64 km/h).

In the pool, both Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps may have some competition; Sailfish can reach swimming speeds of 67 mph (108 kph).

Here are some possible lineups if some other animal were to participate in the Olympic Games:

Bolt ran the 100 meters in 9.58 seconds versus 5.8 seconds, a cheetah would have lost that distance.

Bolt runs 200 meters in 19.19 seconds, while cheetah can sprint that distance in 6.9 seconds, Black Caviar racehorse will do the same in 9.98 seconds and a greyhound in 11, 2 sec.

Retired American sprinter and gold medalist Michael Johnson ran the 400 m in 43.18 seconds. Hound? 21.4 seconds. A racehorse? 19.2 seconds.

Kenyan track and field athlete David Rushida, the world record holder in the 800 metres, ran that distance in 1 minute 41 seconds. This is compared with a time of 33 seconds for the barb and 49.2 seconds for the greyhound.

A horse with the endurance can knock marathon record holder Patrick Makau Musyoki (2 hours 3 minutes and 38 seconds) off the track with a finish time of 1 hour 18 minutes 29 seconds.

World champion Mike Powell is known for his record-breaking jumps, reaching 29.36 feet (8.95 meters) in the long jump, but that's nothing for a red, high-jumping kangaroo 41.99 feet (12.8 m).

The animal kingdom also has a strong contender for the high jump: The snakehead fish can jump 13 feet (4 m) out of the water, easily snatching the medal of athlete Javier Sotomayor, who jumped up to 8 feet. (2.45 m).

Even Olympic weightlifters will face fierce competition from the African elephant, which can lift 661 pounds (300 kg) with its trunk and carry 1,807 pounds (820 kg). , the grizzly bear, which can weigh about 1,003 pounds (455 kg), and the gorilla, which can lift a whopping 1,984 pounds (900 kg).