How Fast Can a Human Run? What Is the Average Speed?

TheIndonesia.id - According to Ryuta Kinugasa and Yoshiyuki Usami in the journal 'How Fast Can a Human Run?', the fastest anyone has run is about 27,5 miles per hour, a speed reached by a sprinter named Usain Bolt. 

Usain Bolt can run a distance of 100 meters in just 9.46 seconds. This means that he can run at a speed of 10.57 meters per second. This speed makes Usain Bolt hold the world record as the fastest human. 

The woman with the fastest running record is Florence Griffith-Joyner. Reporting from Healthline, Florence can cover a distance of 100 meters in just 10.49 seconds. It means she can run 9.53 meters per second. This speed makes Florence Griffith-Joyner the fastest woman in the world. 

Quoting National Geographic, Usain Bolt doesn't fully use his energy to run. He only uses 7.79 percent of his energy to move forward, and 92.21 percent of his energy is spent fighting air resistance. It means a human can naturally run faster.

The biological limit of human running speed 

Peter G. Weyand, et al in the journal The Biological Limits to Running Speed are Imposed from the Ground Up (2010) state that mechanical speed is limited by the mechanical interaction between the standing phase and the step swing. 

The mechanical speed in moving the legs is not enough to reach the speed limit. Reaching the speed limit also requires the speed of leg swings from standing, rejecting, being in the air, and also getting back to standing. 

The research estimates the biological limit of human speed is around 56.33 kilometers per hour to 64.37 kilometers per hour. However, this depends on muscle strength, stride length, leg swing speed, how to swing legs, air contact force, and also the physical condition of each individual.