Micky van de Ven has etched his name in Premier League history books with a record-breaking sprint. Renowned for his remarkable speed, Micky soared to an astonishing top speed of 37.38 km/h (23.22 mph) during Tottenham’s triumphant 3-2 victory over Brentford last Wednesday. This remarkable feat stands as the fastest recorded speed by a player in England’s top flight since the inception of records in 2020.
Putting his electrifying dash into perspective, consider that the fastest human to have ever lived, Usain Bolt, achieved an average speed of 23.35 mph during his world-record breaking 100m sprint at the 2008 Olympic Games. Astonishingly, Micky’s top speed falls just 0.13 mph shy of Bolt’s renowned pace.
In Premier League’s history, Micky surpasses the previous record holder, Kyle Walker, formerly of Tottenham Hotspur and currently representing Manchester City. Walker’s previous record of 37.31 km/h, set during City’s encounter with Everton in May 2023, now yields to Micky’s lightning-fast pace.
Among the top 10 fastest players in Premier League history, another Tottenham Hotspur player makes the list, with Brennan Johnson claiming the eighth position. Johnson achieved a remarkable speed of 36.70 km/h during a match against Manchester City in February 2023, while representing his former club Nottingham Forest.
Read More: Unlocking the Legacy: Top 5 Football Players with the Most Ballon d’Or Nominations
Micky Van de Ven Sets Premier League Sprint Record, But How Fast are Footballers?
In 2014, during Gareth Bale’s debut season with Real Madrid, there was a buzz about his lightning-fast speed. Reports claimed he sprinted at 26.8 mph during his iconic goal against Barcelona in the Copa del Rey final, supposedly faster than Usain Bolt’s average speed when he set the 100m world record in 2009.
While the accuracy of these figures was questionable, the narrative resurfaced recently when the Premier League revealed that Tottenham’s Micky van de Ven had recorded the fastest sprint ever measured in their game against Brentford in January. The Premier League website highlighted Van de Ven’s impressive pace, clocked at 10.38 meters per second or 23.23 miles per hour, drawing comparisons to Bolt’s world record speed of 10.44 meters per second or 23.35 mph (37.58 km/h) during his 100m sprint.
Such remarks often gain traction on social media as retweet material, serving as casual banter. However, one can empathize with the frustration felt by professional athletes. These offhand comments, while seemingly harmless, can inadvertently undermine the years of dedication and hard work these athletes pour into their careers. It’s understandable how such casual comparisons could diminish the significance of their achievements and the profound commitment they’ve made to their craft.
Track and Field Athletes Push Back Against Comparisons to Footballers: Examining the Debate Over Speed Perception
Kelly Sotherton, a distinguished Olympian boasting three bronze medals in the heptathlon and the 4×400m relay, articulates the frustration prevailing within the track and field realm. She underscores the vast disparity between the velocity exhibited by team sport players and the unparalleled speed of athletes such as Usain Bolt. Sotherton contends that such juxtapositions not only undermine the achievements of track and field athletes but also elicit irritation within the community.
Jason Gardener, an Olympic gold medalist in the 4x100m relay at the 2004 Games, echoes Sotherton’s sentiments, denoting the phenomenon as “lazy journalism.” While acknowledging the impressive speeds attained by footballers, Gardener stresses that these cannot be equated to the elite caliber of track athletes.
These sentiments are not isolated incidents. Over the years, there have been recurrent instances of exaggerated 100m times attributed to footballers like Theo Walcott, perpetuating the misconception that they could contend at the pinnacle of sprinting. However, such assertions are met with skepticism and eye-rolling from the athletics community.
Sotherton furnishes a pragmatic viewpoint regarding the hypothetical scenario of inserting a premier footballer like Kylian Mbappe or Erling Haaland into an elite sprinting contest. She intimates that while their speed might be impressive within the context of football, it would likely fall short in a bona fide sprinting milieu. Even surmounting the 11-second barrier, esteemed in certain circles, would pale in comparison to the exacting standards of Olympic sprinting.
For a contemporary benchmark, the fastest 100m time clocked by a male sprinter in 2023 stood at 9.83 seconds, achieved by Zharnel Hughes, setting a British record at a competition in New York. If Sotherton’s assessment holds true, this would likely place the footballer approximately 15-20 meters behind the sprinter, effectively out of contention. Visualizing this scenario underscores the distinct skill sets involved.
Sotherton offers insight into the potential performance of footballers in such a scenario, suggesting they might fare well up to distances of 30 to 40 meters. However, she emphasizes the critical disparity lies in the sprinters’ ability to maintain and accelerate their speed over longer distances compared to footballers. As the race progresses, the sprinters’ advantage becomes increasingly apparent, particularly beyond the 50-meter mark. Sotherton goes so far as to speculate that athletes like Dina Asher-Smith could feasibly outpace the world’s fastest footballers over a 100-meter sprint.
Understanding the Unique Demands of Football: A Comparative Analysis with Track Athletics
Bolt’s remarkable top speed, recorded between the 60- and 80-meter marks of his world record run at the 2009 World Championships, peaked at an astounding 44.72 km/h, far surpassing the velocities achieved by even the fastest Premier League players.
Jonas Dodoo, a sprint coach with experience at Arsenal, Leicester, the FA, and the WSL, adds further perspective by noting that running over 10.5 to 10.2 meters per second places male footballers in the upper echelons of speed, a statistic comparable to elite female sprinters.
It’s essential to emphasize that this discussion isn’t intended as a critique of footballers. Their role doesn’t necessitate matching the speeds of Usain Bolt, Zharnel Hughes, or other Olympic sprint specialists due to the inherently different demands of their sport. Unlike sprinters, who sprint once over 100 meters before resting, footballers engage in numerous sprints throughout a match, often covering distances of no more than 30 meters. Their training regimen and skill development focus on agility, change of direction, and repeated high-speed sprints.
Lateral movement and the ability to stop suddenly are also crucial aspects of a footballer’s skill set. Unlike sprinters, who predominantly move in straight lines, footballers must frequently decelerate, change direction, and accelerate again. This demands a unique combination of strength, flexibility, and technique to perform without risking injury.
An illuminating example occurred when Cristiano Ronaldo raced against professional sprinter and Olympian Angel David Rodriguez. In a straight-line sprint over 30 meters, Rodriguez emerged victorious by 0.3 seconds. However, in a zig-zag race over the same distance, Ronaldo claimed victory by just under half a second.
Examining Ronaldo’s technique in the zig-zag race reveals his unique approach, characterized by agile footwork and rapid changes in direction. This contrasts with Rodriguez’s more conventional technique, better suited for straight-line or gentle curve sprints. Such observations highlight the specialized demands of football, requiring athletes to master complex movements and rapid changes in direction, rather than solely focusing on raw speed.
To cope with these demands, footballers engage in specific training regimens that target different muscle groups through plyometric exercises, such as jumps, squats, and lunges, to enhance explosiveness and agility while minimizing the risk of injury.
Exploring the Transition from Football to Track Athletics: Assessing the Potential and Challenges
The transition from football to sprinting, as exemplified by Adam Gemili’s journey from Chelsea’s youth ranks to becoming a European 200m champion and a member of the victorious 4x100m relay team at the World Championships, highlights the potential for elite footballers to excel in track and field. However, the question remains: could a seasoned footballer like Ro-Shaun Williams, with a remarkable early feat of breaking Darren Campbell’s schoolboy 100m record at 15, make a successful transition to track athletics later in their career?
Kelly Sotherton expresses skepticism about the likelihood of such a transition, suggesting that while a background in athletics prior to the age of 16 might facilitate the process, the odds are against it.
In contrast, Jonas Dodoo adopts a more optimistic stance, asserting that with sufficient time and focused training, it is indeed possible to cultivate top-tier sprinting capabilities in footballers. He emphasizes the importance of adapting tendons, muscles, and overall physical conditioning to the specific demands of sprinting, which can be achieved through structured training regimens.
However, Dodoo acknowledges that the mental aspect of sprinting, particularly the ability to execute one’s race plan under pressure, poses a significant challenge for footballers transitioning to track athletics.
Moreover, the discussion may be misdirected, as footballers might be better suited to events like the 400m or middle-distance running due to their existing skill sets. These disciplines require a blend of speed, endurance, multi-directional flexibility, and rapid pace changes, qualities inherent in footballers’ training and gameplay.
Sport England’s initiative to recruit fast footballers for 400m and 800m events underscores this notion, recognizing the compatibility between footballers’ aerobic capacity and the demands of these track events.
Ultimately, Sotherton proposes a definitive solution to settle the debate: organizing relay races between team sports athletes and professional sprinters at prestigious events like the Grand Prix or the Anniversary Games. This would provide a platform to showcase the respective talents of footballers and sprinters, offering a compelling answer to the question of athletic prowess.
In conclusion, the potential for footballers to transition successfully to sprinting or other track events exists, but it requires a combination of physical preparation, mental fortitude, and adaptation to the unique demands of track athletics. Organizing competitive races between footballers and sprinters could provide a definitive answer to this intriguing debate.
