Major sporting events such as the Olympic Games highlight extraordinary human athletic achievements, performed by the extreme physical outliers of our species. However, there is a range of animal performance that goes far beyond these, both in the wild and in selectively bred ‘sports animals’ such as the racehorse, racing camel, greyhound, sled‐dog and racing pigeon. In this selective review, Craig Sharp assesses how human beings measure up in the animal athletic stakes.