Meet Ghana’s Ferdie Ato Adoboe: Guinness World Records fastest 100m backwards runner

Although it’s not recognized as an Olympic Sport, when it comes to running backwards in a 100-meters dash, Ghana’s Ferdie Adoboe is the fastest human alive.

Ferdie Ato Adoboe set a world record by running 100 metres backwards in 12.7 seconds on 25th July 1991 at the Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, USA.

At a tender age of 19-years, Adoboe made a name for himself becoming the Guinness World Records fastest 100m backwards runner. The graduate from the University of Massachusetts held four speed-related world records.

At one point he set a record at the Ft Lowell Shootout in Tucson, Arizona recording 136 touches in 30 seconds and another in 262 in one minute in the year 1999.

He later held speed juggle in football, hitting the ball 141 times in 30 seconds on The Today Show on August 27, 2003.

After 29 years and still counting no one has been able to break Ferdie Ato Adoboe’s 100m backwards dash which was formerly held by Paul Wilson of New Zealand in 1979.

Background

Ferdie Ato Adoboe was born and raised in Ghana, where he nurtured himself as a soccer player before getting an opportunity to move to the US in 1981.

The Ghanaian attended Amherst Regional High School, and in 1987 graduated from the University of Massachusetts with a degree in Geography and a Geology minor.

His passion for football led him a professional role as a player for St. George in the Australian first division and later went on to play for FC Martigues in the second division of the French League.

Ferdie Ato Adoboe started teaching at camps in the US in 1984 and eventually became the Head Soccer Coach at Mt. Holyoke College (1994-96) after several stints as coach at the high school level.

Adoboe currently acts as a coach at his Soccer-Magic Skills Training Program & Academy, based in Amherst, Massachusetts.

Ferdie Ato Adoboe has developed his curriculum with further research and observations at Real Madrid, Barcelona and FC Nania in his native country.

The Guinness Record holder has managed to establish the Ferdies Soccer Magic, a program of multicultural habits and elements discovered through research around the world.

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