Usain Bolt ceremoniously hung up his studs 7 years ago. But even now, why do athletes strive to be an equal to him or smash his previously set records? The simple reason – he is the World Record holder in the 100m, 200m, and 4x100m relay. Younger, impressionable athletes like Noah Lyles, Fred Kerley, or Christian Coleman are dreaming of touching the benchmark set by Bolt. But if we take a look beyond the track, the football players are showcasing impressive speed on the ground as well.

Among them, the most prominent name is Kylian Mbappé, who ran the 100m dash in 10.9s to make the UCL RO16 drool over him. Though BBC speculated whether he could surpass the track juggernaut since his time is a second behind, Bolt had commented, “The girls are running faster than that.” The stir this comment created then, it still resonates now through football-related questions catapulted at the Olympian.

Usain Bolt smoothy escalated with a smirk

Capping off with ‘Mbappe needs to run 100m and let me see the time!’ | Usain Bolt”, BeanyMan Sports’ Instagram clip picked up the part that can set the internet ablaze. A snippet from the 2024 Laureus Sports Awards post-event session caught the paps asking, “Do you think that there is any football player that can compete with you?” With elegance, the first word he said was “No”. Then went on saying, “I would love to have competed with Mbappe..I think one day he just needs to run 100m and let me see the time”.

Conceding his statement with a smirk asserted that he wanted to go head-on with the Paris Saint-Germain footballer to check the pace himself. However, in another instance, the speedster surrendered to Mbappe in football. Though the latter has a remarkable speed record of 22.4mph, he stands no chance on the track. This became more evident when fans tried to extract fun out of the comparison being drawn.

Fan comments stir up the track and football arenas again

One fan thought the comparison to be pointless because the sports are different and so are the technicalities. Wrote, “Different sports, different technique, different endgame..so it’s kinda useless to compare”. Another fan chimed in to explain how blazing the track athletes are when it comes to speed – “people are funny the slowest 100m competitor would blow Mbappe away“. Praising his composure and humility, one X user commented about Bolt’s greatness – “He’s being humble. he would burn Mbappe even rn at his age”. 

Another X user brought Kyle Walker’s reference, wishing to see him in action instead of the French captain. Said, “Walker would have done better at 100M sprint than Mbappe“. More fans dropped comments to tell how pointless the question was. “Bolt was gapping other sprinters in his prime come on”. It’s just a matter of time to see what the greats would bring to the table.