Average 100m time, and what counts as a good one

These times come from the 2025 AAU Junior Olympic Games, a national championship that athletes qualify for. Half the field ran the median or faster, and "top 20%" is the cutoff for the fastest fifth. Times drop most in the early teens, especially for boys: the median boy goes from 13.05 at 12 to 11.62 at 14.

Average 100m time for non-athletes

The only general-population 100m data we found is a 2025 study of German schoolboys tested on a track. They ran several seconds slower than the national-meet field above, so a youth nationals median is already a very good time. We found no equivalent study of girls.

A good time depends on the level you compete at.

• In middle school (ages 11–14), a 14-year-old boy under 11.62 or girl under 12.85 is faster than half of the AAU Junior Olympics field.
• In high school, state-meet standards are the clearest yardstick. Oregon's range from 10.90 to 11.54 for boys and 12.17 to 13.07 for girls, depending on school size.
• In college, making the 2025 NCAA Division I final took 10.30 (men) or 11.30 (women).
• At the elite level, the World Championships entry standard is 10.00 for men and 11.07 for women.

All of the reference times are fully automatic (FAT). Stopwatch times read fast: in a study of 40-yard sprints, hand timing came out 0.22–0.26 seconds quicker than electronic timing. Wind matters too. World Athletics accepts neither hand-timed nor wind-assisted marks for its championship entry standards, and some of the youth-meet races above were wind-aided. The schoolboy study used a standing start with timing from first movement, so you can't compare it directly with a block start reacting to a gun.

For the longer sprints, see the 200m and 400m ratings. You can also compare your 40-yard dash.