How fast are professional female soccer players?

Dezeri wrote:

From 100m all the way up to the mile what sort of times do they hit?

Obviously you need some natural speed to be pro at soccer but skill matters more so the times would vary A LOT.

The range would be:

11.0 all the way up to 14.0 for 100 meters.

4:40 all the way to to 6:15 for a mile.

I doubt you would get anybody either slower or faster than those times listed.

anecdote of 1:

I believe this article:

https://www.runnersworld.com/runners-stories/a20837683/im-a-runner-brandi-chastain/

suggests Brandi was around ~6:00 flat, which suggests [I think] ~20:00 in a 5k

I believe her 400m speed would have been around ~65s [just me blindly guessing]

Soccer is definitely about more than just speed: it's ball handling, control, passing, and spacing. This entire thread is a little ridiculous

65 sec in a 400 is equivilent to a 14 sec 100 FAT. Although faster than my best efforts, why is it ridiculous that I and many others find it hard to imagine a PRPFESSIONAL ATHLETE who works on speed conditioning would not be able to go faster? Why do you all assume that these professionals who spend more hours on their fitness than most of you are so weak?

My son is a D1 player.

I do some running with him during breaks.

He would be pretty damn fast for a 400, less fast for an 800, etc.

He ran 18:45 for 5k when he was 12 and running 12 mpw with me.

I doubt he could run any faster today at 19.

I'm an ex-college soccer player (male), who would be much better than any of the US Women's National team players. My best 5K is 18:14. I'm sure most of the professional women would be between 19-22 mins.

why do we presume that athletes in a sport that involves a ball and scoring are actually more worried about speed than any base conditioning? Have you ever watched a football game? They people scoring goals/defending best/the best at the sport are not the fastest on the field by any means

pretty common misconception around here. Another great example is Barry Sanders. His speed did not make him great. See also Bird

The fastest player on my sister’s 15-17 year old recreational league team runs something like a 1:12 400 and they all seem pretty serious about their sport. Not sure what this says about pros other than most players’ talent is seen in sprints of 20m to 150m. Their mile times do not mean much.

Well, we've established a possible bottom range now with Steiner having 11.38/22.73 in high school.

So:

100m: 11.38-

200m: 22.73-

Someone with those times probably could run 52 as well. However, her 400 pr was only 57.

Professional female soccer players spend zero time wondering how many goals elite runners can score.

Ravin wrote:

Publisher wrote:

Published times are almost always grossly inaccurate for athletes in other sports

"I ran it in practice once"

"Wasn't a measured course"

"I'm pretty sure I could run17:00" (right before running a 23:00)

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.

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Right but these are professional athletes, not 13 year olds lying about their running times on quora. Pro women soccer players normally vo2 test In the high 50s which line up perfectly with a 17-19 minute 5k.

Not disagreeing. I know these women are great athletes.

I'm just saying that, unless it is from an official race, on a certified course, and is reported by the race officials (as opposed to by the athletes themselves or friends/fans of the athletes) any claimed time should be thrown out and given no consideration in the discussion. This goes for ALL athletes of BOTH genders at ALL levels.

I ran at a mediocre D1 track school. We had a pretty good women's soccer team. One of the women switched to track after her sophomore year. She ran 2:19-2:17 800s her junior year and 2:17-2:15 800s her senior year.

D1 track guy wrote:

I ran at a mediocre D1 track school. We had a pretty good women's soccer team. One of the women switched to track after her sophomore year. She ran 2:19-2:17 800s her junior year and 2:17-2:15 800s her senior year.

Good women soccer players run fire 800s, even soccer players who aren't at top level run closer to 2 than a lot of people here would expect. I’ve heard of pro women being unsatisfactored with 2:10 times. People here seem to think the only athletes who can actually RUN are middle distance athletes who run 80+ mile weeks, this is not the case. There is more than one way to get conditioned for fast running and soccer is brilliant at conditioning. Most soccer players do bot neglect their endurance, a lot of people here seem to think they do and that the only thing they are good for are 30m dashes, absolutely not the case, endurance and vo2 max is HUGE in soccer at most levels. Even the majority recreational players aren’t satified with 2 mile run times slower than 12/13 minutes and these are just people playing for fun and fitness at weekends, I come from an area where this sport is basically tradition (both playing and watching) so I know a few of these types. I would trade my mediocre run times and 40 mile weeks for the conditioning even an average soccer player has any day of the week but my passion lies with running.

Man it feels weird typing this referring to it as soccer, I’m from the uk so we call it football but this is an american site so I guess I can adapt. :P

*unsatisfied

Just as a point of reference, for what it's worth.

Alex Morgan Track & Field Bio

2010 Outdoor Season Parkside HS

100 Meters - 12.23 (-1.9)SR May 28 OFSSA West Regionals Jr P

4x100 Relay - 46.06 May 28 OFSSA West Regionals

teebeecee wrote:

Just as a point of reference, for what it's worth.

Alex Morgan Track & Field Bio

2010 Outdoor Season Parkside HS

100 Meters - 12.23 (-1.9)SR May 28 OFSSA West Regionals Jr P

4x100 Relay - 46.06 May 28 OFSSA West Regionals

It seems almost unpossible for Morgan to run 100 meters without falling down.

Didn't the National team get drubbed by a random boys high school team?

The answer is that all of them are pretty slow so the faster ones look relatively faster.

Women runners look pretty fast when only compared to each other too.

I'd think that players running from 5-6M per game, according to the stats, with repeated bursts of speed, often 15-30s at a time, are going to be excellent at 800-mile and highly trainable for 5000m but not ready for it.

Fancy Semenya wrote:

Didn't the National team get drubbed by a random boys high school team?

The answer is that all of them are pretty slow so the faster ones look relatively faster.

Women runners look pretty fast when only compared to each other too.

Could the men’s track and field team that we send to Doha this fall beat the women’s national soccer team in a soccer match? I say yes. Might be close if you limited it to mid distance and distance runners.

Jessie Fleming who is a midfielder for team Canada holds the OFSAA midget (gr 9) girls record for the 1500m at 4:28. I believe she quit running after grade 9 to focus on soccer.