Introduction: Finding the limits -- Raw speed: how fast can a human run? -- Pumping iron: the limits of pure strength -- Swimming: how fast can someone swim the 50-meter freestyle? -- Performance-enhancing substances: a digression -- Driving for dough: what's the farthest someone can hit a golf ball? -- Hang time: how high can basketball take the dunk? -- Breathing lessons: what's the longest someone can hold his breath? -- The last slugger: hitting the longest homer -- The marathon and the mile: the limits of the legendary distances -- Epilogue: Are perfection points reachable?

How Fast? How Far? How High?

Just forty years ago, Jim Hines ran rhe 100 metres in under 10 seconds. Now Usain bolt is inching close to 9.50 second mark, begging the question: exactly how fast can a human go?

Utilizing cutting edge science to examine incredible physical feats in the most elite sporrs, John Brenkus uncovers what it takes to reach the 'perfection point' - that measurement of speed, distance or force that supreme athletes can inch closer to but never between physical stamina and emotional drive, this is the ultimate guide to the furthest limits of human performance.

'Lively and engaging .. this stuff is catnio to sports fans' - Wall Street Journal