A personal record or personal best (abbreviated to PR or PB) is an individual's best performance in a given sporting discipline. It is most commonly found in

athletic sports Athletics is a term encompassing the human competitive sports and games requiring physical skill, and the systems of training that prepare athletes for competition performance. Athletic sports or contests are competitions which are primarily bas ...

, such as

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

, other forms of

running Running is a method of terrestrial locomotion allowing humans and other animals to move rapidly on foot. Running is a type of gait characterized by an aerial phase in which all feet are above the ground (though there are exceptions). This is ...

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

and

weightlifting Weightlifting generally refers to activities in which people lift weights, often in the form of dumbbells or barbells. People lift various kinds of weights for a variety of different reasons. These may include various types of competition; promo ...

. The term "PR" came from the world of running, referring to a person's best time in a race of a specific distance. So, if someone runs their first

5K race The 5K run is a long-distance road running competition over a distance of . Also referred to as the 5K road race, 5 km, or simply 5K, it is the shortest of the most common road running distances. It is usually distinguished from the 5000 me ...

in 28:45, that's their PR for the 5-kilometre distance. If they run faster than 28:45 in a subsequent 5K race, then they have a new PR for that distance. Over time, PR came to mean any new record in a sport that could be performed by a single person. Although the term "personal best" is increasingly used in official sports statistics, it can also refer to an unofficial best individual performance, according to some sources.

References

Sports terminology Sports records and statistics Superlatives in sports {{Sport-stub