Athletics: All track and field world records at a glance
Find out which records Usain Bolt still owns, which world records are still standing, and which are the oldest world records.
Athletics
Did you know that the oldest track athletics world record is in the women’s 800m set by Jarmila Kratochvilova in 1983?
Or that the longest-standing mark in the field has belonged to hammer thrower Yuriy Sedykh since 1986?
The fastest man in history is Usain Bolt. The Jamaican became the first man to run the men's 100m in less than 9.6 seconds with his 9.58 at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin.
The track legend, who dominated the sprints for almost a decade, also set the 200m world record of 19.19 at the same championships.
Another double world record holder is Florence Griffith-Joyner. The American's times of 10.49s in the women’s 100m and 21.34s in the 200m have stood since 1988.
What is the fastest marathon time?
Kenya’s Kelvin Kiptum set the men's marathon world record with 2:00:35 in Chicago in October 2023, breaking compatriot Eliud Kipchoge's mark of 2:01.09 from Berlin in September 2022.
Tragically, Kiptum died from injuries sustained in a car crash in February 2024. He was 24.
Another Kenyan, Mary Keitany has the the fastest women-only marathon with her 2:17.01 at the 2017 London Marathon.
Minutes after Kipchoge won his fifth Berlin Marathon in 2023, Ethiopia's Tigst Assefa set a new women's world record of 2:11:53, more than two minutes inside Brigid Kosgei's time from Chicago in 2019.
World Records Men Outdoor
* Pending ratification.
World Records Women Outdoor
* Pending ratification. Mx: mixed gender race. Wo: women only race. (i): set indoor.
World Records Mixed Outdoor
* Pending ratification.