A personal record, or a personal best (abbreviated to 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 competition, competitive sports and games requiring physical skill, and the systems of training that prepare Sportsperson, athletes for competitive performance. Athletic sports or contests are competition ...

, such as

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

, other forms of

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

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, such as saltwater or freshwater environments, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Swimmers achieve locomotion by coordinating limb and body movements to achieve hydrody ...

and

weightlifting Weightlifting or weight lifting generally refers to physical exercises and sports in which people lift weights, often in the form of dumbbells, barbells or machines. People engage in weightlifting for a variety of different reasons. These can ...

. The term 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 in 28:45, that's their PB for the 5-kilometre distance. If they run faster than 28:45 in a subsequent 5K race, then they have a new PB for that distance. Over time, PB 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.

References

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