# Which animals would beat you over 100 metres?

The cheetah wins the sprint in **5.95 seconds**. The elephant beats you too, without looking like it runs. But over a kilometre, **you beat the cheetah**: the fastest land animal has never been measured running that far.

By Marius Comper · 20 September 2026 · every time has a source; find them under [sources](#surse)

## How fast do you run 100 metres?

Pick your age to see the usual time of children your age, measured in German schools. If you ever timed your own run, enter it: the race uses that instead.

The usual number is the page's own arithmetic, not a measurement: 50 metres times 1.85. The second half has no standing start, so it runs quicker than the first; the German study shows the 100 metres can be guessed well from 50, but gives no formula. Only a stopwatch, and a friend with a phone, gives you your true time.

At ten, half the boys run 50 metres between 9.1 and 9.5 seconds, and half the girls between 9.3 and 9.7.

## Pick the winners, then start the race

Tick the animals you think beat you over 100 metres. Usain Bolt runs too, as a witness: his world record is 9.58 seconds.

- **Cheetah** 5.95 s. Sarah, aged 11, Cincinnati Zoo: 100 metres in 5.95 seconds, peaking at 98 km/h. ([Live Science, 2012](https://www.livescience.com/22080-cheetah-breaks-speed-record.html))

- **Horse** 6.62 s. World record over 110 yards (100.58 m): 6.66 seconds, carrying a rider, from starting gates. ([Ontario Racing, 2024](https://ontarioracing.com/news-and-results/top-racing-headlines/2024/had-to-be-ivory-sets-record-on-ajax-downs-closing))

- **Dog** 6.94 s. Phelan, the fastest dog of the American final: 100 yards in 6.346 seconds. ([American Kennel Club, 2020](https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/news/nations-fastest-dogs-fast-cat-invitational/))

- **Ostrich** 5.88–8.85 s. Measurements span 11.3 to 17 metres per second; no reliable maximum exists. ([Daley et al. 2016, J. Exp. Biol.](https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.142588))

- **Pronghorn** 3.60 s. The 100 km/h top is “alleged”, the study's own word; measured is the endurance: 11 km in 10 minutes. ([Lindstedt et al. 1991, Nature](https://doi.org/10.1038/353748a0))

- **Elephant** 14.71 s. 42 Asian elephants on video reach 6.8 metres per second, that is 25 km/h. ([Hutchinson et al. 2003, Nature](https://www.nature.com/articles/422493a))

- **Hen** ? s. Nobody has timed a hen sprinting. On a treadmill hens hold only 3–5 km/h, for minutes. ([Rose et al. 2016, Sci. Rep.](https://doi.org/10.1038/srep24292))

- **You, a ten-year-old (estimate)** 17.4 s.

- **Bolt** 9.58 s.

On the usual ten-year-old time, the cheetah, horse, dog, ostrich, pronghorn and elephant beat you. The hen stays a question mark.

## Why 93 kilometres per hour does not make 3.9 seconds

No creature starts from zero at top speed, and none holds it for the whole hundred metres. So the stopwatch always reads worse than the arithmetic from a top speed, and top-speed tables mix measurements made in different ways.

The rule of thumb: race times compare with race times, and top speeds with top speeds. The rest is arithmetic, useful, but named as such.

### Cheetah: 3.9 on paper, 5.95 on the track

93 kilometres per hour covers 100 metres in 3.86 seconds, if you run that way from the first step. Sarah, the 11-year-old Cincinnati cheetah, ran a real hundred in 5.95 seconds: with the start and the tired last metres. The gap between 3.9 and 5.95 is this page's lesson. As for 112, the old books took the highest published value, 101–121, and printed it as fact. The new measurements, by GPS and on the track, say 93–98.

### Pronghorn: 100 “alleged”

The study praising its endurance calls the 100 km/h top “alleged”, and a naturalist quoted in 1983 said the pronghorn runs at 65, not 95. This race takes 100 as a working guess and shows it as one. What is solidly measured is the endurance: 11 kilometres in 10 minutes, a 65 km/h average.

### Ostrich: a range, not a number

On ostriches, chased by quad bike and tracked by GPS, the measured maximum was 11.3 metres per second, that is 41 km/h. In 1979, by film or by the car's speedometer, it came out as 12–17. The 2016 authors write plainly that no reliable, directly measured maximum exists. The newspaper 70 sits above every measurement. That is why the ostrich runs here as a band, not a line.

### Hen: nobody has timed one

The hen's “9 miles per hour” has no study we could find behind it. Science has measured hens on treadmills, where they hold 3–5 km/h for minutes, but a speed held for minutes is not the speed of a frightened dash. Putting the treadmill in place of the sprint would compare unlike things. The hen stays a question mark until somebody times one — perhaps you.

## Over a kilometre, you beat the cheetah

The cheetah does not lose by a whisker. It never starts: of 367 runs measured with GPS collars, the longest never reached 600 metres. Pick the kilometre's winner before you see the bars.

- Pronghorn: 55.4 s (From the 65 km/h average over 11 km.)

- Horse: 56.71 s (A track record over 1000 m: 56.71.)

- You, a ten-year-old: 6:11 (At the 9-minute-test pace.)

- Cheetah: Does not run (Longest of 367 runs: 559 m.)

Nobody has timed the dog's, the ostrich's, the elephant's or the hen's kilometre, so they sit this race out.

## Eight questions, stopwatch on the table

You are ten and you run 100 metres in about 17 seconds. Eight statements, three possible answers: some questions have no answer yet, and “nobody knows” is a good answer.

- **The cheetah beats you over 100 metres.** True. Sarah ran it in 5.95 seconds, nearly three times quicker than your time of about 17 seconds. ([Live Science, 2012](https://www.livescience.com/22080-cheetah-breaks-speed-record.html))

- **The horse beats you over 100 metres.** True. The world record over 110 yards, that is 100.58 metres, is 6.66 seconds, with a rider up and a gates start. ([Ontario Racing, 2024](https://ontarioracing.com/news-and-results/top-racing-headlines/2024/had-to-be-ivory-sets-record-on-ajax-downs-closing))

- **The dog beats you over 100 metres.** True. Phelan, the fastest dog of the 2020 American final, ran 100 yards in 6.346 seconds, about 6.9 for 100 metres. ([American Kennel Club, 2020](https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/news/nations-fastest-dogs-fast-cat-invitational/))

- **The elephant beats you over 100 metres.** True. At its measured top speed, 25 km/h, the elephant covers 100 metres in 14.7 seconds, against your roughly 17 at age ten. Note: 14.7 is pace, not a stopwatch. ([Hutchinson et al. 2003, Nature](https://www.nature.com/articles/422493a))

- **The hen beats you over 100 metres.** Nobody knows. Nobody has timed a hen over the distance. On a treadmill hens hold 3–5 km/h for minutes, but that is not the speed of a frightened dash. ([Rose et al. 2016, Sci. Rep.](https://doi.org/10.1038/srep24292))

- **The ostrich beats the horse over 100 metres.** Nobody knows. Measurements span 11.3 to 17 metres per second, that is 5.9 to 8.8 seconds for the distance. The horse, timed, runs 6.6. The ostrich's range passes through the horse's time. ([Daley et al. 2016, J. Exp. Biol.](https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.142588))

- **Over a kilometre, the cheetah beats you.** False. Of 367 runs measured with GPS collars, the longest was 559 metres. The cheetah does not lose the kilometre: it never runs it. ([Wilson et al. 2013, Nature](https://doi.org/10.1038/nature12295))

- **Over a kilometre, the pronghorn beats the horse.** True. 11 kilometres in 10 minutes means a 55.4-second kilometre; a horse track record over 1000 metres is 56.71. Note: the pronghorn's time comes from an average, not a one-kilometre race. ([Lindstedt et al. 1991, Nature](https://doi.org/10.1038/353748a0))

## Three things you can time yourself

This page trusts the stopwatch more than the arithmetic. Three weekend protocols, from easy to hard.

### Your hundred

Measure 100 metres with a long tape or counted paces on a sports field. Start from standing at your friend's signal with the phone. Run twice and keep the better time, as the study's schools did.

### The neighbour's hen

Push two sticks into the ground 10 metres apart. Film the hen as she dashes past them and divide 10 by the seconds in the footage. If you get a number, you measured something no study we read has measured.

### Your dog

America has an event for every dog: 100 yards after a lure, timed electronically. If you time your dog over 91.44 metres, the converter below gives its speed and places it next to Phelan.

Phelan, for example: 6.346 seconds means 32.2 miles per hour.

## Where the times come from

Every lane wears a badge. **Stopwatch** means a time measured over the race distance or scaled from a neighbouring one: 110 yards are 100.58 metres, and 100 yards are 91.44. **Pace** means 100 divided by a measured top speed; the start is missing from the arithmetic, and the page says so on every lane. **Unknown** means we found no measurement and invented none.

Your usual time is the page's arithmetic from the measured German children's 50-metre sprint: times 1.85, because the second half has no standing start. Your kilometre comes from their 9-minute test. Both are approximations, and the page sends you to the stopwatch.

What we do not know we say out loud: the hen's sprint speed, the ostrich's reliable maximum, and the dog's, ostrich's, elephant's and hen's kilometre. The full dossier of every figure sits in our drawer; here you see the studies and records, with links that work.

- Wilson, A.M. et al. (2013). Locomotion dynamics of hunting in wild cheetahs. Nature 498. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature12295 — the cheetah hunts: 93 km/h maximum, 367 runs, the longest 559 m
- Live Science (2012). 11-year-old cheetah breaks land speed record. https://www.livescience.com/22080-cheetah-breaks-speed-record.html — Sarah: 100 metres in 5.95 seconds, peaking at 98 km/h
- Ontario Racing (2024). Had To Be Ivory sets record on Ajax Downs closing day. https://ontarioracing.com/news-and-results/top-racing-headlines/2024/had-to-be-ivory-sets-record-on-ajax-downs-closing — the 110-yard world record: 6.660, Divas First Anita, Mexico City, 2022
- Racing SA. Metropolitan record times. https://www.racingsa.com.au/files/18740_metropolitan_record_times.pdf — a 1000 m track record: 56.71, Star Hills, 2020
- American Kennel Club (Dec 2020). Nation's fastest dogs crowned at AKC Fast CAT Invitational. https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/news/nations-fastest-dogs-fast-cat-invitational/ — Phelan: 100 yards in 6.346 seconds
- American Kennel Club. Fast CAT. https://www.akc.org/sports/coursing/fast-cat/ — the event: a timed 100-yard dash after a lure
- Lindstedt, S.L. et al. (1991). Running energetics in the pronghorn antelope. Nature 353. https://doi.org/10.1038/353748a0 — the pronghorn: “alleged” 100 km/h top; 11 km in 10 minutes (abstract read)
- Daley, M.A. et al. (2016). Preferred gait and walk–run transition speeds in ostriches. J. Exp. Biol. 219. https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.142588 — the ostrich: 11.3 m/s measured; no reliable maximum; 12–17 m/s in 1979
- Hutchinson, J.R. et al. (2003). Are fast-moving elephants really running? Nature 422. https://www.nature.com/articles/422493a — Asian elephants: up to 6.8 m/s on video
- Hudson, P.E. et al. (2011). Functional anatomy of the cheetah forelimb. J. Anat. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3077521/ — the racing greyhound: 17 m/s, after Usherwood and Wilson 2005
- Garland, T. Jr. (1983). Maximal running speed and body mass in terrestrial mammals. J. Zool. 199. https://biology.ucr.edu/people/faculty/Garland/Garl1983_JZL.pdf — the speed table and the warning: the speedometer and “the highest reported value”
- Rose, K.A. et al. (2016). Terrestrial locomotion in leghorn chickens. Sci. Rep. 6. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep24292 — hens on a treadmill: what science measures and what it does not
- Golle, K. et al. (2015). Physical fitness percentiles of German children aged 9–12 years. PLoS ONE 10(12). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0142393 — 240 children: the 50 m sprint and the 9-minute run, by age and sex
- World Athletics (16 Aug 2009). Bolt again! 9.58 world record in Berlin. https://worldathletics.org/news/news/bolt-again-958-world-record-in-berlin-updat — the men's 100 m world record: 9.58