Running is a method of terrestrial locomotion allowing humans and other animals to move rapidly on foot. Running is a type of gait characterized by an aerial phase in which all feet are above the ground (though there are exceptions). This is in contrast to walking, where one foot is always in contact with the ground, the legs are kept mostly straight and the center of gravity vaults over the stance leg or legs in an inverted pendulum fashion. A feature of a running body from the viewpoint of spring-mass mechanics is that changes in kinetic and potential energy within a stride occur simultaneously, with energy storage accomplished by springy tendons and passive muscle elasticity. The term running can refer to any of a variety of speeds ranging from jogging to sprinting. It is assumed that the ancestors of humankind developed the ability to run for long distances about 2.6 million years ago, probably in order to hunt animals. Competitive running grew out of religious festivals in various areas. Records of competitive racing date back to the Tailteann Games in Ireland between 632 BCE and 1171 BCE, while the first recorded Olympic Games took place in 776 BCE. Running has been described as the world’s most accessible sport.

Richard Thompson:

Richard Thompson. Top 10 Fastest Runners In The World.

Richard “Torpedo” Thompson (born 7 June 1985) is a sprinter from Trinidad and Tobago who specializes in the 100 meters. His personal best of 9.82 seconds, set in June 2014, was one of the top ten fastest of all time, and a national record. In the 200 meters, he has the fourth-fastest time by a Trinidad and Tobago athlete. Thompson studied at Louisiana State University (LSU) and broke the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) indoor 60 meters record in 2008, his final season of collegiate athletics. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Thompson was the silver medalist in the 100 meters, running a then-personal best of 9.89 seconds, and the 4×100 meters relay along with Emmanuel Callender, Keston Bledman, and Marc Burns. He also won the silver medal in the 4×100 meters at the 2012 Olympics with the same team he competed in the 2008 Olympics with. Also in the 2012 Olympics, he finished 6th following the disqualification of Tyson Gay in the final of the 100 meters. Thompson is a five-time Trinidad and Tobago national champion. His current personal best of 9.82 was set at the 2014 Trinidad and Tobago national championships.

Steven Mullings:

Steve Mullings. Top 10 Fastest Runners In The World.

Steve Mullings (born 28 November 1982) is a Jamaican former sprint athlete who specialized in the 100 and 200 meters events and in 2011 was given a lifetime ban for doping. Mullings began his international athletics career with a bronze medal win in the 100 m at the Pan American Junior Championships. At the 2004 national championship, he made his first impact in senior athletics, setting new bests of 10.04 and 20.22 in the sprints, and finishing as the 200 m national champion. This earned him qualification into the 2004 Summer Olympics, but he was withdrawn from the competition after his sample from the national championships tested positive for banned substances. After his B sample also tested positive for testosterone, he was banned from competition for two years and his results between mid-2004 and 2005 were removed from the record.

Maurice Green:

Maurice Green. Top 10 Fastest Runners In The World.

Maurice Greene (born July 23, 1974) is an American former track and field sprinter who specialized in the 100 meters and 200 meters. He is a former 100 m world record holder with a time of 9.79 seconds. During the height of his career (1997–2004) he won four Olympic medals and was a five-time World Champion. This included three golds at the 1999 World Championships, a feat which had previously only been achieved by Carl Lewis and Michael Johnson and has since been equaled by three others. His career was affected by a number of injuries from 2001 onwards, although he won the 100 meters bronze and silver in the sprint relay at the 2004 Summer Olympics. Greene was also successful indoors: he was the 1999 Indoor World Champion, was the world record holder in the 60-meter dash for nearly 20 years, and remains the joint-fastest man over 50 meters. He raced sparingly after an injury in 2005 and officially retired in 2008. Over his career, he made the third most sub-10-second runs (52) in the 100m, tied with Usain Bolt, and only surpassed by Asafa Powell and Justin Gatlin.

Nesta Carter:

Nesta Carter. Top 10 Fastest Runners In The World.

Nesta Carter (born October 11, 1985) is a Jamaican sprinter who specializes in the 100 meters event. Carter has been successful as part of the Jamaican 4 x 100 meters relay team, taking gold and setting successive world records at the 2011 World Championships and 2012 London Olympics. He also won a 4 x 100m silver medal at the 2007 World Championship and a gold at the 2015 World Championships. On August 11, 2013, Carter secured an individual 100m World Championship bronze medal in Moscow, behind Justin Gatlin and teammate Usain Bolt. He followed this with another gold in the 4 x 100 meters relay. In August 2010 he became only the fifth sprinter to run the 100 meters in less than 9.8 seconds. His current 100m personal best of 9.78 ranks him as the sixth fastest man of all time, behind fellow Jamaicans Usain Bolt, Yohan Blake, and Asafa Powell, and Americans Tyson Gay and Justin Gatlin.

Christian Coleman:

Christian Coleman. Top 10 Fastest Runners In The World.

Christian Coleman (born March 6, 1996) is a currently suspended American professional track and field sprinter who competes in the 100-meter dash and 200-meter dash. He is the current world champion in the 100 meters. He was a double medallist at the World Championships in Athletics in 2017, winning silver medals in both the 100 m and 4 × 100-meter relays. He holds personal records of 9.76 seconds for the 100 m and 19.85 for the 200 m and is also the world indoor record holder for the 60-meter dash with 6.34 seconds. He was IAAF Diamond League champion in 2018 and the world number one ranked runner in the 100 m for the 2017 and 2018 seasons. Coleman represented the United States in the relay at the 2016 Summer Olympics, competing in the heats only. He was the gold medallist in the 60 m at the 2018 IAAF World Indoor Championships and is a two-time American national champion, having won the 60 m in 2018 and 100 m in 2019. Coleman competed collegiately for the Tennessee Volunteers and won five NCAA titles indoors and out, including American collegiate record performances in both the 100 m and 60 m.

Justin Gatlin:

Justin Gatlin. Top 10 Fastest Runners In The World.

Justin Gatlin (born February 10, 1982) is an American sprinter who specializes in the 100 and 200 meters events. He is a 5-time Olympic medalist and a 12-time World Championship medalist. He is the 2004 Olympic Champion in the 100 meters, the 2005 and 2017 100 meters World Champion, and the 2005 World Champion in the 200 meters. Gatlin is a two-time 60 meters World Champion in 2003 and 2012, and 2019 4 x 100 meters World Champion. Gatlin was banned from competing between 2006 and 2010 by USADA for failing a drug test, testing positive for testosterone. A five-time Olympic medalist, Justin Gatlin’s personal best of 9.74 seconds ranks fifth on the all-time list of male 100-meter athletes. He is a two-time 100m World Champion and a two-time indoor World Champion in the 60-meter dash in 2003 and 2012, and won both the 100 meters and 200 meters at the 2005 World Championships. Gatlin is also a World Champion in the 4 x 100 meters relay, which the United States of America team won at the 2019 World Championships.

Asafa Powell:

Asafa Powell. Top 10 Fastest Runners In The World.

Asafa Powell, CD (born 23 November 1982) is a Jamaican sprinter who specializes in 100 meters. He set the 100 meters world record twice, between June 2005 and May 2008 with times of 9.77 and 9.74 seconds. Powell has consistently broken the 10-second barrier in competition, with his personal best of 9.72 s ranking fourth on the all-time list of male 100-meter athletes. As of 1 September 2016, Powell has broken the ten-second barrier more times than anyone else—97 times. He currently holds the world record for the 100-yard dash with a time of 9.09 s, set on 27 May 2010 in Ostrava, Czech Republic. At the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, he won a gold medal in the 4 x 100 meters relay. Powell competed in the 100 m at 2004, 2008, and 2012 Olympics, finishing fifth in 2004 and 2008 and eighth after injuring his groin during the race in 2012. At the 2007 Osaka World Championships, he won a bronze and a silver medal in the 100 m and 4 x 100 m relay respectively, and he was successful at the Commonwealth Games, winning two golds and one silver medal. At the 2009 World Championships, he won the 100 m bronze and relay gold. Powell has won five times at the IAAF World Athletics Final and was the former 100 m world record holder in the event.

Yohan Blake:

Yohan Blake. Top 10 Fastest Runners In The World.

Yohan Blake (born 26 December 1989), is a Jamaican sprinter of the 100-meter and 200-meter sprint races. He won gold at the 100 m at the 2011 World Championships as the youngest 100 m world champion ever, and a silver medal in the 2012 Olympic Games in London in the 100 m and 200 m races for the Jamaican team. Blake is the second fastest man ever in both 100 m and 200 m. Together with Tyson Gay, he is the joint second-fastest man ever over 100 m with a personal best of 9.69 seconds which he ran on 23 August 2012. Only Usain Bolt has run faster. His personal best for the 200 m (19.26 seconds) is the second-fastest time ever after Bolt (19.19 seconds). He holds the Jamaican national junior record for the 100 meters, and was formerly the youngest sprinter to have broken the 10-second barrier (at 19 years, 196 days). He was coached by Glen Mills until 2019, his training partners were Usain Bolt and Daniel Bailey.

Tyson Gay:

Tyson Gay. top 10 Fastest Runners In The World.

Tyson Gay (born August 9, 1982) is an American track and field sprinter who competes in the 100 and 200 meters dash. His 100 m personal best of 9.69 seconds is the American record and makes him tied for the second-fastest athlete ever, along with Yohan Blake. Gay has won numerous medals in major international competitions, including a gold medal sweep of the 100 m, 200 m, and 4 × 100 m relay at the 2007 Osaka World Championships. This made him the second man to win all three events at the same World Championships, after Maurice Greene (Usain Bolt duplicated the feat two years later). Gay is a four-time U.S. champion in the 100 m. At the 2008 Olympic Trials, he ran a wind-assisted 9.68 seconds in the 100 m. Days later, he suffered a severe hamstring injury in the 200 m trials and did not win any medals at the Beijing Olympics. His performance of 9.71 seconds to win the 100 m silver medal in the 2009 World Championships is the fastest non-winning time for the event.

Usain Bolt:

Usain Bolt. Top 10 Fastest Runners In the World.

Usain St Leo Bolt, born 21 August 1986) is a Jamaican retired sprinter, widely considered to be the greatest sprinter of all time. He is a world record holder in the 100 meters, 200 meters, and 4 × 100 meters relay. An eight-time Olympic gold medallist, Bolt is the only sprinter to win Olympic 100 m and 200 m titles at three consecutive Olympics (2008, 2012, and 2016). He also won two 4 × 100 relay gold medals. He gained worldwide fame for his double sprint victory in world record times at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, which made him the first person to hold both records since fully automatic time became mandatory. An eleven-time World Champion, he won consecutive World Championship 100 m, 200 m, and 4 × 100 meters relay gold medals from 2009 to 2015, with the exception of a 100 m false start in 2011. He is the most successful athlete of the World Championships. Bolt is the first athlete to win four World Championship titles in the 200 m and is one of the most successful in the 100 m with three titles. Bolt improved upon his second 100 m world record of 9.69 with 9.58 seconds in 2009 – the biggest improvement since the start of electronic timing.