Are Track Athletes Really That Fast?

the fastest US football and soccer players could maybe run at a low semi-pro level in sprints, they have to be quick and explosive but you'll have a hard time convincing me that they could hang with beat kipchoge in the marathon, even if they trained their whole lives.

Kipchoge is a rail thin midget unable to play any other sport. And he doesn't make much money at the level of AC Milan or Manchester U that there would be much more competition for Eliud. He probably dopes a lot less than Ronaldo though, so he's got that in his favor.

Yeah, T&F athletes are much faster than American Football players and Football players. Most top level sprinters would completely dust the best American footballers in that 40yd sprint they do.

As for distance runners, there have been a number of them who played football while growing up but gave it up as they found more success in T&F/XC.

Fast, but not fast enough wrote:

Yeah, T&F athletes are much faster than American Football players and Football players. Most top level sprinters would completely dust the best American footballers in that 40yd sprint they do.

As for distance runners, there have been a number of them who played football while growing up but gave it up as they found more success in T&F/XC.

Why would they give up a highly incentivized big money sport that they are good at for a low incetive poorly paid sport? Wouldn't it make more sense that the soccer stars gave up a poorly paid sport for the most popular sport in the world, where pros make millions and can dope with impunity?

These guys don't make much money.

the amount of money available within a sport is solely dependent on the number of folks prepared to pay to watch it, and this may not necessarily have anything at all to do with the quality of the athletes who play it. in my country, for example, snooker and darts are hugely popular spectator sports and so bring in a lot of money for television rights. darts even has its own venue specifically for televised matches. but you would struggle to convince me that these guys are athletes in any meaningful sense of the word.

therefore, whether athletes make money or not has precisely zero to do with how athletic or fit the participants are.

and since that was the start point for your troll thread we can confidently toss the whole thing in the bin.

cheers.

"Yeah, T&F athletes are much faster than American Football players and Football players. Most top level sprinters would completely dust the best American footballers in that 40yd sprint they do."

Any data to back up your claim?

Stalingrader wrote:

Kipchoge is a rail thin midget unable to play any other sport.

Regardless of whether or not that is true, he would still destroy any american football player at the sport he can do. Being able to do one sport doesn't make him bad at it. The question is about running, not whether track athletes could win a soccer game.

Stalingrader wrote:

And he doesn't make much money at the level of AC Milan or Manchester U that there would be much more competition for Eliud. He probably dopes a lot less than Ronaldo though, so he's got that in his favor.

He doesn't make as much money, but thats probably good for his ego. One of the most humble people in professional sports. Nike spent money on the level of a professional soccer team on the breaking two project and they knew he was the best chance to break 2. If there was some soccer player who they thought could have broken 2, breaking 2 research team would have found them.

Common misconception, just because you can run fast you will be good in football/soccer. This is wrong, because not only do you have to run fast, but you have to have good ankles to cut. Just because you can run a fast 40 yard dash does not mean you'll be a top NFL running back.

@Fast, butt wrote: Any data to back up your claim?

due to the difference in timing method it is not possible to make a direct comparison between the time for a football player's 40 yard dash and a sprinter's time over 50m.

however, some actual facts.

the fastest time ever recorded, or claimed to have been recorded, for a football player in the 40 yard dash, is 4.10s by Jakeem Grant of Texas Tech in 2016. this is not universally accepted as being legitimate.

Bo Jackson of Auburn claimed, or has had claimed for him, to have run 4.13s and 4.18s in the same week of 1986, but there are good reasons (link below) to suppose this too might not be legitimate.

the best time that is widely considered to be accurate is 4.22s by John Ross, a wide receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals at the NFL Combine in March 2017.

in 2017, sprinter Christian Coleman (not ranked in the top 100 at 50m in 2017) ran the NFL 40 yard dash in 4.12s.

in other words, a not particularly fast sprinter, was way faster than any NFL player ever.

go figure.

The world record holder in the 60 meters”is not a particularly fast sprinter?”

no, track sprinter are quite fast compared to the most of the speed athletes in other sports but that's largely because speed, while important, isn't actually the deciding factor in most ball sports. Consider football: speed helps but its the combination of size and speed that is most important. Even among wide receivers its better to be tall and strong and pretty fast than to be blazingly fast. That's why someone like Gronk is one of the best receivers of all time despite having one of the slowest 40 times among skill players on the Patriots.

Yeah, Coleman was a top 5 sprinter in the world at that time. Add this to the large pile of laughable posts from Cottonshirt.

ElOh wrote:

Umm.... wrote:

The world record holder in the 60 meters”is not a particularly fast sprinter?”

Yeah, Coleman was a top 5 sprinter in the world at that time. Add this to the large pile of laughable posts from Cottonshirt.

And he ignores the fact that sprinters train the start specifically. But facts aren't Cottonhead's strong suit.

@Fast, butt wrote:

"Yeah, T&F athletes are much faster than American Football players and Football players. Most top level sprinters would completely dust the best American footballers in that 40yd sprint they do."

Any data to back up your claim?

We need to separate out sprints from distances. As far as sprints there are NFL players who could be world class sprinters. Look at guys who were top sprinters and then went to the NFL. Trindan Holiday was a top college sprinter, ran 10.00 and then played in the NFL. He was one of the fastest NFL players but there were a couple other guys in the league as fast or close. He also ran 4.34 in the 40 where others have been in the 4.2 range. To be in the NFL you have to be bulkier than is ideal for a world class sprinter in order to take hits. The very fastest guys in the NFL could be elite level sprinters although they would probably need to slim down a little from their football weight. I doubt any could compete with Bolt but I'm sure there's some who could make world teams.

As far as soccer players I wouldn't be surprised if some could be world class mid d or distance guys.

For app. 30 metres some Am. football athletes may be close in skill to some slower starting elite or not so elite 100m sprinters. The Am. football athletes whom participated in high school and/or college track & field obviously would do better. See Johnny "Lam" Jones, Willie Gault, Herschel Walker and of course Bob Hayes. Hayes with modern shoes would certainly make both World Championship and Olympic 100m final. I believe some professional football/soccer athletes would do well 200 metres to 800 metres.

Stalingrader wrote:

These guys don't make much money. There's not much incentive for this sport. I wonder if big money American football and soccer athletes would actually dominate T&F if they trained for it.

Well, not sure how to unpack this. Getting paid has more to do with popularity of the sport than the simple ability to run fast. Heck, some slower runners make more money than faster runners because they market themselves better. We see this in other sports like tennis where some players make more total income than another because they get people to sponsor them.

Track athletes are fast. That is indisputable. Certainly some football players, if they train as track athletes might well be competitive---enough were in high school that it seems probable.

Many soccer players might be competitive middle distance runners (the blend of aerobic and anaerobic to me makes this more likely) if they pursued it. Heck I remember running against soccer players in relays who out ran a lot of us, but they liked soccer better.

But most people who participate in Olympic sports do not make much money. The VAST majority who make the Olympics are not getting rich doing it.

Stalingrader wrote:

Fast, but not fast enough wrote:

Yeah, T&F athletes are much faster than American Football players and Football players. Most top level sprinters would completely dust the best American footballers in that 40yd sprint they do.

As for distance runners, there have been a number of them who played football while growing up but gave it up as they found more success in T&F/XC.

Why would they give up a highly incentivized big money sport that they are good at for a low incetive poorly paid sport? Wouldn't it make more sense that the soccer stars gave up a poorly paid sport for the most popular sport in the world, where pros make millions and can dope with impunity?

I am beginning to think the poster does not know much about sports.

Distance runners are not going to be successful in American football. Successful distance runners are pretty much everything you do not want in a football player: skinny and little explosiveness (did not want to be hyperbolic and say "none", but comparatively speaking it is none!). Often shorter. Not a lot of short, skinny, not quick college players. Even kickers are pretty explosive and few of them seem to be 5-8.

Then let's not ignore the other variables like not wanting to be hit or the prospects of suffering brain damage or that some people prefer individual sports to team sports. Of fear of an injury like ACL tears.

A soccer star should certainly chase that dream if that is what he/she wants to do.

The US has had a few of its middle distance stars play soccer before choosing to specialize in running.

The problem with sprint comparisons is that both in American Football and soccer the most important thing is to be fast in very short distances like 20-30m (therefore the 40yds dash). Many might be competitive if a 30-40m dash without blocks existed. But many of the fast team sports stars would already fade in the second half of a 100m dash against top sprinters. Nevertheless quite a few might as well have become world class sprinters had they decided on that path.

As for 400/800/1500/mile there have been quite a few cases of young men who started with soccer and only came to running as older teenagers and turned out to be excellent. So we are probably losing a few potentially great middle distance runners to soccer because it is so much more lucrative (certainly in Europe). For longer distances one usually needs a leaner "ektomorphous" body type that does not go so well in soccer.

@Fast, butt wrote:

"Yeah, T&F athletes are much faster than American Football players and Football players. Most top level sprinters would completely dust the best American footballers in that 40yd sprint they do."

Any data to back up your claim?

NFL Combine record for 40 yards is John Ross at 4.22 (unofficial best is Bo Jackson with supposed 4.12), where Usain Bolt has been calculated to have run the 40 yards - the first 40 yards of a 100m race - in 3.96.