Python, at least in the CPython reference implementation, is not a particularly speedy language. That is not at all surprising to anyone who has used it—the language is optimized for understandability and development speed, instead. There have been lots of efforts over the years to speed up various parts of the interpreter, compiler, and virtual-machine bytecode execution, though no comprehensive overhaul has been merged into CPython. An interesting new proposal could perhaps change that, though it is unclear at this point if it will take off.