No sport has the speed variation of match sprint cycling, a highly tactical three-lap head-to-head race around the Olympic velodrome. It is among the slowest and fastest races in the Olympics. The contest is best-of-three, but we’re showing only estimates from the winner of the second race for both men and women here. Jason Kenny Match sprint 45 miles per hour 45 miles per hour Speed of Rio’s racing gold medalists Men’s races Women’s races 40 40 Match sprint Fabian Cancellara 35 35 Kristin Armstrong of the United States won her third consecutive gold medal in the individual road time trial, the first person to win the same Olympic cycling event three times in a row. 30 30 Individual time trial (34 miles) Triathlon bike (24 miles) Usain Bolt of Jamaica became the first person in history to win the 100- and 200-meter sprint in three consecutive Olympics. 25 25 Individual time trial (18 miles) Road race (148 miles) Greg Van Avermaet 100 meters Triathlon bike (24 miles) Usain Bolt Usain Bolt Anna van der Breggen 200m Road race (85 miles) Kristin Armstrong 100 meters Elaine Thompson 400m Wayde van Niekerk of South Africa set a world record, finishing in 43.03 seconds. Wayde van Niekerk Elaine Thompson 200m 20 20 400m Shaunae Miller 800m 1,500m Matthew Centrowitz Mo Farah David Rudisha Mo Farah 1,500m 800m Caster Semenya 5,000m 15 15 10,000m 10,000m Mo Farah of Britain fell down about 40 percent of the way through the 10,000-meter race but won anyway. He ran his last 400 in a blistering 55 seconds. Triathlon run (10km) Vivian Cheruiyot (5k) Liam Heath Almaz Ayana (10k) Kayak single 200m Faith Chepngetich Kipyegon (1.5k) 5,000m Jemima Jelagat Sumgong of Kenya started to break away with about four miles to go. Farah falls Triathlon run (10km) Canoe single 200m Iurii Cheban Marcus Walz Jemima Jelagat Sumgong Marathon Alistair Brownlee Kayak single 1,000m Mahe Drysdale Kim Brennan 10 10 Danuta Kozak Single sculls Single sculls Wang Zhen 20km walk Sebastian Brendel Kayak single 500m Canoe single 1000m Matej Toth 50km walk 20km walk Liu Hong Kristina Vogel 50m freestyle Anthony Ervin 5 5 Pernille Blume 50m freestyle 100m Kyle Chalmers Simone Manuel, Penny Oleksiak (tie) 200m Mack Horton 100m 400m Katie Ledecky of the United States won the 200-, 400- and 800-meter freestyle, setting two world records. Sun Yang 200m Katie Ledecky 400m Gregorio Paltrinieri Katie Ledecky 1,500m Katie Ledecky Triathlon swim (1.5km) 800m Ferry Weertman Sharon van Rouwendaal Marathon swim (10km) Marathon swim (10km) Gwen Jorgensen Triathlon swim (1.5km) Race start Race end Race start Race end No sport has the speed variation of match sprint cycling, a highly tactical three-lap head-to-head race around the Olympic velodrome. It is among the slowest and fastest races in the Olympics. The contest is best-of-three, but we’re showing only estimates from the winner of the second race for both men and women here. Jason Kenny Match sprint 45 miles per hour 45 miles per hour Speed of Rio’s racing gold medalists Men’s races Women’s races 40 40 Match sprint Fabian Cancellara 35 35 Kristin Armstrong of the United States won her third consecutive gold medal in the individual road time trial, the first person to win the same Olympic cycling event three times in a row. 30 30 Individual time trial (34 miles) Triathlon bike (24 miles) 25 25 Usain Bolt of Jamaica became the first person in history to win the 100- and 200-meter sprint in three consecutive Olympics. Individual time trial (18 miles) Road race (148 miles) Greg Van Avermaet 100 meters Triathlon bike (24 miles) Usain Bolt Usain Bolt Anna van der Breggen 200m Road race (85 miles) Kristin Armstrong 100 meters Elaine Thompson 400m Wayde van Niekerk of South Africa set a world record, finishing in 43.03 seconds. Wayde van Niekerk Elaine Thompson 200m 20 20 400m Shaunae Miller 800m 1,500m Matthew Centrowitz Mo Farah David Rudisha Mo Farah 1,500m 800m Caster Semenya 5,000m 15 15 10,000m 10,000m Mo Farah of Britain fell down about 40 percent of the way through the 10,000-meter race but won anyway. He ran his last 400 in a blistering 55 seconds. Triathlon run (10km) Vivian Cheruiyot (5k) Liam Heath Almaz Ayana (10k) Kayak single 200m Faith Chepngetich Kipyegon (1.5k) 5,000m Jemima Jelagat Sumgong of Kenya started to break away with about four miles to go. Farah falls Triathlon run (10km) Canoe single 200m Iurii Cheban Marcus Walz Jemima Jelagat Sumgong Marathon Alistair Brownlee Kayak single 1,000m Mahe Drysdale Kim Brennan 10 10 Danuta Kozak Single sculls Single sculls Wang Zhen 20km walk Sebastian Brendel Kayak single 500m Canoe single 1000m Matej Toth 50km walk 20km walk Liu Hong Kristina Vogel 50m freestyle Anthony Ervin 5 5 Pernille Blume 50m freestyle 100m Kyle Chalmers Simone Manuel, Penny Oleksiak (tie) Mack Horton 200m 100m 400m Katie Ledecky of the United States won the 200-, 400- and 800-meter freestyle, setting two world records. Sun Yang 200m Katie Ledecky 400m Gregorio Paltrinieri Katie Ledecky 1,500m Katie Ledecky Triathlon swim (1.5km) 800m Ferry Weertman Sharon van Rouwendaal Marathon swim (10km) Marathon swim (10km) Gwen Jorgensen Triathlon swim (1.5km) Race start Race end Race start Race end Jason Kenny Match sprint 45 miles per hour 45 miles per hour Speed of Rio’s racing gold medalists Men’s races Women’s races 40 40 Match sprint Fabian Cancellara 35 35 30 30 Individual time trial (34 miles) Triathlon bike (24 miles) 25 25 Individual time trial (18 miles) Road race (148 miles) Greg Van Avermaet 100 meters Triathlon bike (24 miles) Usain Bolt Usain Bolt Anna van der Breggen 200m Road race (85 miles) Kristin Armstrong 100 meters Elaine Thompson 400m Wayde van Niekerk Elaine Thompson 200m 20 20 400m Shaunae Miller 800m 1,500m Matthew Centrowitz Mo Farah David Rudisha Mo Farah 1,500m 800m Caster Semenya 5,000m 15 15 10,000m 10,000m Triathlon run (10km) Vivian Cheruiyot (5k) Liam Heath Almaz Ayana (10k) Kayak single 200m Faith Chepngetich Kipyegon (1.5k) 5,000m Farah falls Triathlon run (10km) Canoe single 200m Iurii Cheban Marcus Walz Jemima Jelagat Sumgong Marathon Alistair Brownlee Kayak single 1,000m Mahe Drysdale Kim Brennan 10 10 Danuta Kozak Single sculls Single sculls Wang Zhen 20km walk Sebastian Brendel Kayak single 500m Canoe single 1000m Matej Toth 50km walk 20km walk Liu Hong Kristina Vogel 50m freestyle Anthony Ervin 5 5 Pernille Blume 50m freestyle 100m Kyle Chalmers Simone Manuel, Penny Oleksiak (tie) Mack Horton 200m 100m 400m Sun Yang 200m Katie Ledecky 400m Gregorio Paltrinieri Katie Ledecky 1,500m Katie Ledecky Triathlon swim (1.5km) 800m Ferry Weertman Sharon van Rouwendaal Marathon swim (10km) Marathon swim (10km) Gwen Jorgensen Triathlon swim (1.5km) Race start Race end Race start Race end Pinch to zoom

Forget modern pentathlon, trampoline gymnastics and synchronized diving. At its most basic, the Olympics is about races, and it has dozens: races in a pool or open water; on a kayak or canoe; around a track or on the road; races where participants must walk — but quickly! Races on a bicycle, both indoors and outdoors.

All races share the same utterly simple objective — to cross a finish line as quickly as possible, before the other participants do — but they occur in much different environments and across a wide range of paces.

In the charts above, we are showing many of them at once: the full range of Olympic speed.

Usain Bolt of Jamaica, for example, averaged nearly 23 miles per hour in his gold medal 100-meter dash. That is slightly faster than the 22 miles per hour the gold medalist in the women’s road race, Anna van der Breggen of the Netherlands, averaged on a bicycle. (One catch: Bolt ran for 10 seconds; van der Breggen rode for nearly four hours.)

On the other end of the spectrum, the fastest long-distance swimmers in the Games swam slower than four miles per hour — about the pace of a brisk afternoon walk.

But this view also reveals as much about speed variation within races as it does across them.

Several of the longer track events featured huge changes in speed. In the men’s 10,000-meter race, Mo Farah of Britain fell down around the 4,000-meter mark but won anyway, running his last 400 meters at a sprinter’s pace. Faith Chepngetich Kipyegon of Kenya gained momentum until she led the pack in the women’s 1,500-meter race.