IN MINUTES News and events — visually

Animals vs. OlympiansWhen it comes to faster, higher, stronger, animals take the gold over humans —

and without much competition

RUNNING SWIMMINGJUMPING (HEIGHT)Usain Bolt of Jamaica — also known as

“Lightning Bolt” — ran the 100 metre in 9.63 seconds at the London 2012 Summer Games, which works out to be almost 38 kilometres per hour. The cheetah is the fastest land animal by far, able to reach speeds over 100 km/h for short bursts.

American Charles Austin jumped almost 2.4 metres in 1996, an Olympic record that still stands today.In the animal world, snow leopards have been known to jump 6 metres in the air.

Mike Powell, an American long jumper, still holds the world

record he created in 1991 of almost 9 metres; the

fourth person since 1900 to hold the record for over 20 years.When it comes to far leaping animals, snow leopards are on top once again; able to jump as far as 15 metres (and they probably don’t need the running start we do!)

Greyhound

House cat

USAIN BOLT

Squirrel

37.6

19.3

0.05Gardensnail

63.4

48.3

Cougar

Snowleopard

Eastern GreyKangaroo

MIKE POWELL

Horse

Typical frog

Horse

CHARLES AUSTIN

Dog

Rabbit 0.6

5.4

Snowleopard 6.1 metres 15 metres

13.5

2.47

2.39

1.7

Boltran the 100min 9.58s at the

2009 world championships in

Berlin, which is 0.05s faster than his Olympic time

Powell won silver medals for long jump at

both the 1988 and 1992 Olympics.

Killer whale

Dolphin

Leatherbackturtle

MICHAEL PHELPS

Goldfish

6.9

1.37

55.5

38

35.4

Guinnessworld record

World record (Huaso, ridden by Alberta Larraguibel in 1949)2008

Beijing Olympics 1996

Atlanta Olympics

Based on a constant

110 km/h speed, the sailfish would finish a 100m race in 3.28s — Phelps’ time was 51.21s.

From standing, a

cheetah can accelerate from

0-72 km/h in 2 s; most race cars can’t achieve

that.

The men’s world record

for high jump is 2.45m, set in

1993 by Cuba’s Javier

Sotomayor. Charles Austin’s 1996 Olympic record jump

Usain Bolt after winning the 100m in Beijing

0.9

8.95

8.4World record

1991 World

Champion-ships in

Athletics

Mike Powell’s world record jump

JUMPING (LENGTH)

London 2012, 100m

butterfly

Cheetah Around 111 km/h

Snow leopards are the

smallest of all big cats, but definitely

have the most powerful legs.

QMI AGENCY

Sources: Wikipedia; National Geographic; centralpark.com

; hypertextbook.com

; neatorama.comAs of

Dec. 19, 2009, Phelps had set 39

world records — more than any other swimmer; he

currently holds 7 of them.

After completing his swimming events at London 2012, Michael Phelps is now the most decorated Olympian ever with 18 gold medals and 22 overall in his career. During the 100m butterfly, his average speed would have been almost 7 kilometres per hour. Pretty fast, right?Enter the sailfish, which has been clocked at speeds exceeding 100 km/h. Phelps wouldn’t stand a chance!

Sailfish 110 km/h