Good morning/afternoon/evening olympians of the Jungle. Chances are you are not competing in Tokyo right now. That’s fine, not all of us can reach that level. The one thing we all can do though? Respect and understand the levels of fitness, athleticism, and skill on display. So below are some comparisons between the average man and woman, and the athletes representing their respective countries in some of the most popular events…
100m Dash
The crown jewel of track and field events. The simplest event known to man; be the first person to get to that line 100 meters away. Ten seconds of pure grit, nothing better. On the men’s side, the LAST place finisher at the 2020 Olympic Games finals in Tokyo ran 9.98 seconds. The average man is estimated to have a time of 27 seconds for the 100m dash. Due to the gradual increase in speed as the event goes on, this would mean that the average man is roughly a third of the way through, while the last placed runner is finishing.
For women, this gap is even wider between the average and the olympic-level. The average woman is estimated to be able to run a 34 second 100m dash, whereas last place in the finals at Tokyo finished in 11.12 seconds.
5000m
Checking the clock after you laced up those old trainers to run in your town’s local 5k, what time do you see? For this event, the data on the average runner’s side is much more accurate, as people tend to run many more officially timed 5000m races than 100m dashes. For men 25-29 (the athletic prime of most), the average 5k time ran is 31:09. In the 2016 final in Rio (the most recent final as of the time of this writing), LAST place crossed the finish line with a time of 13:43. Taking into account the likely factor of slowing down throughout the race for the average person, it can be estimated that the average person will have made it about five and a half laps into the race, when the last place olympic finals finisher was completing the twelve and a half lap race.
On the women’s side, we see an average 5k time in the same age range coming in at 36:16. In the Tokyo finals (women’s side is completed), the final finisher came in at 15:12. Proportionately speaking, both the men’s and the women’s times are the same gap between the average and the olympic level.
High Jump
Probably some of the most under-respected performances in the track and field world of olympics come out of high jump. The contorting of their bodies (called the Fosbury Flop for all you trivia heads) is just as impressive as the base jumps these athletes are able to do. The LAST place finisher in the 2020 Tokyo finals for the men jumped 2.24 meters (88.2 inches) without touching the bar; compare this to the average vertical of around 18 inches for men. Not an apples to apples comparison necessarily, but realistically not many people would add much, if any, height to their jumps by attempting to go head first while timing a gluten bridge.
On the women’s side, last place in the 2016 Rio finals notched a height of 1.88m (74 inches), much higher than the average female and her height of 14 inches. Similar to the 100m dash, the gap between the olympic level and the average person seems to be more pronounced on the female side than the male side.
Conclusion
Playing Monday morning quarterback can be a fun pastime, but at the end of the day, spectators like to tell someone on the Olympic stage to do better, while asking someone else to go walk the dog. Don’t be that person anon, you are better than that.