Fierce 5: Fastest Athletes Of All Time

It’s an expression as old as time, “Speed Kills.” Whether you’re a cheetah on the savannas of Africa or an athlete, speed is undoubtedly the most valuable asset a creature can have. For a cheetah, speed means life. For an athlete it means success.

There are many types of speeds that come into play. There is straight line, agility and quickness. Straight line speed is the easiest to measure, but doesn’t necessarily tell you much about an athlete. In sports like basketball and football, quickness and agility are much more important but more difficult to measure. But sometimes measurements aren’t necessary. Some guys are so fast that they catch your eye. Guys like this don’t come around often, but when they do they’re unforgettable. Here are the 5 fastest athletes in sports history.

1. Deion Sanders

Primetime is the best cornerback in the history NFL. This flashy football icon ran a 4.57 40-yard dash backwards. If that isn’t impressive enough maybe his 4.27 40-yard dash will do the trick. Sanders not only tore it up on the football fields, he took his speed to the MLB where he stole 186 bases in just 556 games.

2. Rickey Henderson

When you think about speed in baseball, Rickey is always the first guy that comes to mind. Henderson led the league in steals 11 times, including a season where he has a record 130 steals. In his career he totaled 1,406 stolen bases, nearly 500 more than the next closest.

3. Chris Johnson

Chris Johnson is one of those flash in the pan type players who showed all the promise in the world, but never quite lived up to potential. Nonetheless, Johnson rewrote what it meant to be fast in the NFL. His 4.24 40-yard dash is still the official record at an NFL combine. Though his blinding speed gave him one of the greatest NFL seasons in football history, his poor ability to find holes led him to flame out and never be the great running back that he once was thought to be.

4. Usain Bolt

Theoretically, this list could be comprised of all sprinters, but that wouldn’t be fun. So instead, let’s take the best sprinter in history and throw him on this list. Bolt doesn’t need an introduction or statistics thrown around about his speed, he rewrote the history books when it comes to running and is arguably the fastest man to ever live.

5. Michael Phelps

Sure, this may be cheating, but who said speed only counts on land? In the water Phelps is so fast that it’s weird. On his way to becoming the most accomplished Olympian in history, Phelps broke just about every swimming record known to man (and fish). Though he may not be so graceful on land, in the water this guy is flat out fast.

–Michael Hersey