This is bird note.

Ladies gentlemen and birds, take your marks.

Lined up at the starting blocks for the 100 meter dash are the world's fastest man and fastest woman.

Alongside them, an ostrich, an emu, and a roadrunner.

Don, they're off!

Olympic sprinters are awesomely fast runners.

Usain Bolt ran the fastest men's 100-meter dash ever recorded,

reaching a top speed during the sprint of almost 28 miles per hour.

Man, that's fast!

And Florence Griffith Joyner, the fastest woman, ran the hundred just a shade slower.

But are they any match for some of the swiftest birds on two legs?

In the time it took to explain this, all of our runners have crossed the finish line.

And the gold medal goes to Africa's ostrich, sprinting across the finish line at an incredible 43 miles an hour.

This bird can trot at 31 miles an hour for miles and miles.

The emu from Australia takes silver, easily topping 30 miles an hour.

And standing proudly on the podium alongside the big birds, the world's fastest man and woman.

They took bronze, just a tick ahead of the roadrunner.

I wonder whose picture will appear on the box of Wheaties.

For Bird Notes, I'm Michael Stein.

Music For Bird Note, I'm Michael Stein.