Could Mykhailo Mudryk ditch football for sprinting at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics? The Ukrainian appears to be giving it a shot. After all, he’s got wheels.

Mudryk’s speed has never been in doubt. He hit a top speed of 36.67 km/h in a Premier League match, one of the highest recorded in Europe. It was the kind of burst that drew comparisons to sprint specialists, and for a brief moment, it made the Olympic speculation sound almost plausible. But raw velocity is just one piece of what it takes to survive on the track.

The Ukrainian Athletics Federation quickly cooled the story. “Mykhailo Mudryk is not training with the national track and field team… and we have not had any discussions regarding his transition,” said federation president Olha Saladukha. A press secretary added that as long as his doping case remains unresolved, “this topic cannot even be a subject of discussion.”

Mudryk is currently serving a provisional suspension after testing positive for meldonium, a substance banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency. If the ban holds, it could stretch years and bar him from participating in any sport that follows WADA rules.

The Gulf Between Football Speed and Track Speed

Even without the suspension, Mudryk would face an immense sporting climb. His best in-game sprint of 36.6 km/h is elite by football standards, but in sprinting, it barely gets him out of the blocks. Usain Bolt reached 44.7 km/h during his 100-meter world record run, and today’s Olympic finalists routinely top 40 km/h. Over 100 meters, sustaining that velocity is everything. Track analysts estimate that a footballer with Mudryk’s top-end speed might run around 10.8 seconds for 100 meters. To qualify for the Olympics in Paris 2024, men had to hit 10.00 seconds flat.

That gap of nearly a full second represents an enormous chasm in sprinting terms. No Ukrainian sprinter has ever run under 10 seconds, with the national record still at 10.07, set by Valeriy Borzov in 1972. For Mudryk to make the cut by 2028, he would need to leapfrog half a century of national sprinting history while also starting from scratch in block technique, stride efficiency, and speed endurance.

There are precedents for athletes switching sports. Former NFL running back Jahvid Best retrained for the 100 meters and managed 10.16 seconds, enough to reach the Rio Olympics in 2016, though he went out in the heats. Britain’s Adam Gemili left Chelsea’s youth academy at 18 and within two years was running Olympic finals, but he had begun young and dedicated himself fully to sprinting. Mudryk, at 24, would be trying to pull off that transition late and under pressure.

Then there is time. If a ban keeps him sidelined until 2026, he would have barely two seasons to reach qualifying shape before Ukraine’s trials in 2027. That window is unforgiving, even for athletes with pure track backgrounds.

If anything, the rumors have given fans an outlet: some are amused by the notion of a Chelsea record signing finding a new career in athletics, others mock the idea as desperation. What’s certain is that Mudryk’s future, in either sport, hinges first on the outcome of his doping case. Until then, the only Olympic sprints he’ll be making are in memes.