3D Simulation Shows What Happens in Race Between Usain Bolt and Kishane Thompson

Athletics fans have often wondered whether there would ever be a sprinter who could trump Usain Bolt and become the fastest man alive.

Bolt currently holds the record for the fastest-ever 100m sprint, achieving the feat in 9.58 seconds in Germany in 2009, and it will take some doing to beat that run.

It’s a shame, then, that Kishane Thompson wasn’t around in the same era as Bolt, with the Jamaican one of those tipped to run a sub-9.58-second 100m at some point in the future.

The fastest Thompson has achieved is a 9.75-second sprint as he recently became the sixth-fastest man in history, doing so in the final of the Jamaican Athletic Championships earlier this year.

Bringing that down is Thompson’s next aim as the 24-year-old looks to better Bolt’s exploits on the athletics circuit.

Now, though, running fans have an idea of how current Thompson will fare against prime Bolt in the 100m.

Simulation pits the fastest runners of each decade against one another

Thompson is presently the fastest man this decade and a simulation by MotionAthlete has shown how the Mitchell Town-born runner would perform against Bolt and other sprinters in years gone by.

The simulation takes the fastest sprinters from the last seven decades, with Bolt featuring twice following runs in 2009 and 2012, and pits them against one another to see who would come out on top.

An all-star lineup of sprint legends includes Jim Hines, Silvio Leonard, Carl Lewis, Maurice Green, Bolt twice, and Thompson.

The race itself isn’t a mere animation but is considered one of the most accurate and detailed simulations that goes to show the evolution of speed since the 1960s and to demonstrate how fast human performance has become.

The first race between the six sprinters has Bolt from 2009 coming out on top, with Thompson coming third with his 9.75-second sprint.

The second race takes out both wind and altitude, two key factors that can influence performances.

Fans would expect the second race to be a close-run race between the two Jamaican sprinters but, with both factors removed, Bolt from 2009 actually wins with a greater margin.

2009 Bolt wins with a run of 9.625 seconds, so a little slower than his run in Germany over 16 years ago. Bolt from 2012 then comes in second with a run of 9.702 seconds, while Thompson does podium with a run of 9.793 seconds, with wind and altitude actually helping the latter in his history-making sprint.

At the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo, Thompson actually finished second in the men’s 100m final, with compatriot Oblique Seville taking home the gold as Jamaica completed a 1-2 earlier this month.