Usain Bolt can cover 100 meters in 9.58 seconds, but does his intelligence measure up to his speed? Is he one of the elite athletes with surprisingly high IQ scores?
Usain Bolt’s IQ has never been confirmed. The Jamaican sprinter never addressed this topic publicly, and there are no reliable sources disclosing his IQ score.
Usain Bolt’s IQ score remains a mystery, but there are many other important numbers that defined his Olympic career.
Usain Bolt’s Records
It’s been a few years since Usain Bolt announced his retirement, but he’s still described as the fastest man alive. Bolt earned this title by running a distance of 100 meters in 9.58 seconds, which is the current world record in this discipline.
Bolt achieved this career milestone at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin. He referenced this historic number in the title of his 2010 autobiography Usain Bolt: My Story: 9.58: Being the World’s Fastest Man.
The Jamaican sprinter also holds the second-fastest time at the 100 meters event. He managed to cover this distance in 9.63 seconds at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, which is the current Olympic record.
The third-fastest time of 9.69 seconds also belongs to Bolt, but he shares this title with Tyson Gay and Yohan Blake. He achieved this time at the 2008 Summer Olympics, and it was the world record for the 100 meters event until he managed to break it a year later.
Bolt also holds the record in the 200 meters race, with a time of 19.19 seconds. When it comes to 4×100 meters relay, he managed to cover this distance in 36.84 seconds and shares this record with fellow sprinters Yohan Blake, Michael Frater, and Nesta Carter.
Not all of Bolt’s records were achieved during official competitions. He ran 150 meters in 14.35 seconds during a street race at the Manchester Great City Games in 2009.
Some of Bolt’s notable Guinness World Records are connected to the number of medals he won. He has more consecutive Olympic gold medals in 100 and 200 meters events than any other male sprinter, and also holds the record for most wins in the 100-meter sprint with three victories.
Athletes with High IQ Score
We still don’t know Usain Bolt’s IQ score, but several elite athletes didn’t shy away from sharing theirs with the world.
Back in 2012, The New York Times reported that the French tennis player Marion Bartoli had an IQ of 175. She would rank in the top 1% of the population if this result is correct, but Bartoli wasn’t too concerned by it and said, “Perhaps I’d retake an IQ test now, and I’ll have a 75.”
The NFL player Ryan Fitzpatrick is another highly-intelligent star athlete, who played college football at Harvard before kicking off his professional career. His exact IQ score is unknown, but he scored 48 on his Wonderlic test, which corresponds to the IQ of 150.
The Wonderlic test is used by the NFL to assess the cognitive and problem-solving abilities of prospective players. The results are often made public, and former Cincinnati Bengals punter Pat McInally is currently the only player to ever get the perfect score.
Running & IQ Score
Unlike NFL players, runners aren’t required to take an intelligence test, but there are indications that running can have a positive effect on a person’s brainpower.
Several studies came to the conclusion that running can enhance memory and cognition, and support the growth of new brain cells. This doesn’t mean that a person is automatically becoming smarter – their memory capacity is being increased, but it’s up to them to put it to some good use.
A study published by Preventive Medicine Reports explored a link between sprint-based exercise and cognitive function and concluded they may enhance cognition. Based on this evidence, Usain Bolt’s devotion to sprinting could’ve had a positive effect on his IQ score, but the actual number is yet to be revealed.