Prior to his then world record of 9.72 seconds he set in New York in May 2008, Usain Bolt was anonymous to the sporting world— perhaps with the exception of a few athletics fanatics in Jamaica. The summer Olympic Games in 2008 officially unleashed him to the spotlight as he led the domination of the Jamaicans in the track and field competition at the ‘Bird’s Nest’. He did this with mind-blowing performances that included shattering two world records in the process.
Starting the 2009 season by competing over 400 metres to improve his speed, Usain Bolt suffered a minor leg injuries in a car crash in late April and also the resurgence of rival Tyson Gay from injury compounded pressure on Usain to add the world title to his Olympic titles in order to reach hall of fame status where he has gradually approaching or perhaps approached.
Turning a professional in 2002, this 23-year old is re-writing the history books in a way that pundits haven’t seen in a while. His exploits have even incited some of his rivals including compatriot Asafa Powell to make comments like they don’t think he is from this planet and the fact that someone has to come from space to stop this “thunderbolt” as he is called in Jamaica. At age 15, he had grown to 6ft 5in tall and at age sixteen; he had reached times that the legendary Michael Johnson couldn’t until he was age 20.
In his fifth senior race over the 100 metres distance, he broke Asafa Powell’s record of 9.74 seconds to 9.72 seconds. Combining both the 100 metres and 200 metres at the Olympic Games in Beijing, he won Jamaica’s first gold medal at the competition in a world record time 9.69 seconds. The remarkable aspect of this feat is that, he did this by visibly slowing down to celebrate and also his golden Puma spikes with the inscription “Beijing 100m Gold” were untied. He was criticized for showboating few metres to the finish line; however, the real argument was about how early he could have finished with a time of 9.52s from his coach.
Exactly a year to the day he won the Olympic gold in Beijing, on the blue tartan tracks at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, the world was awe-stricken as Bolt won his first World Championship gold medal in 9.58s in what was the largest ever margin of improvement in the 100m world record since the beginning of electronic timing. Taking over a tenth of a second off the previous world record, his closest rival Tyson Gay finished in a distant second with a time of 9.71seconds (the best by any American thus far).
The athletics world and lovers of sports in general are trying to find new superlatives to describe what he is doing as those available are understatements to his achievements. He has taken 0.16 sec off the 100 m in just 15 months—previously the mark has been lowered by only 0.21 secs by seven athletes over a 39-year period. Being the first man to hold both 100 and 200 meters Olympic and World crowns with world record times, one won’t be wrong in saying Usain is the greatest sportsman ever!
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