Humans have kept cheetahs in captivity for 5,000 years and recorded the cats sprinting faster than 60 mph. Yet we're only now grasping the true athleticism of the world's fastest sprinter in its natural habitat, thanks to the work of a former competitive runner who wanted to understand "the enigma of the cheetah." Alan Wilson, a biomechanicist at London's Royal Veterinary College, started out studying the locomotion of racehorses, greyhounds and jackrabbits at top speed. "We started running cheetahs in a zoo setting and didn't really get them to go very fast," he says.
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