Usain Bolt

BY Sieg Lindstrom Last Updated: Aug 17, 2021 | View Edit History

TOP QUESTIONS

How did Usain Bolt become famous?

What was Usain Bolt’s childhood like?

Usain Bolt was the son of grocers in Jamaica’s rural Trelawny parish. He excelled as a cricket fast bowler in his preteen years and developed a deep affection for the European football (soccer) teams Real Madrid and Manchester United.

What did Usain Bolt accomplish?

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Usain Bolt, in full Usain St. Leo Bolt, (born August 21, 1986, Montego Bay, Jamaica), Jamaican sprinter who won gold medals in the 100-metre and 200-metre races in an unprecedented three straight Olympic Games and is widely considered the greatest sprinter of all time.

Usain Bolt

Usain Bolt

Born: August 21, 1986 (age 35) Montego Bay Jamaica

Awards And Honors: Olympic Games

Bolt, the son of grocers in Jamaica’s rural Trelawny parish, excelled as a cricket fast bowler in his preteen years. He developed a deep affection for the European football (soccer) teams Real Madrid and Manchester United, but his school coaches steered him toward track and field. Bolt first marked himself as a track prodigy at the 2002 world junior championships. In that meet, racing before a crowd of 36,000 in Jamaica’s National Stadium in Kingston, Bolt—just 15 years old at the time—won gold in the 200 metres, becoming the youngest-ever male world junior champion in any event. At age 16 Bolt cut the junior (age 19 and under) 200-metre world record to 20.13 sec, and at 17 he ran the event in 19.93 sec, becoming the first teenager to break 20 seconds in the race. However, hampered by a hamstring injury, he failed to advance beyond the 200-metre heats at the 2004 Olympics in Athens and placed last in the 2005 world track-and-field championships final.

At 6 feet 5 inches (1.96 metres), Bolt defied the conventional wisdom that very tall sprinters are disadvantaged as fast starters. In 2007 he appeared newly dedicated to his training and earned a silver medal in the 200 metres at the world championships. He also persuaded his coach to let him try the 100 metres, and he ran 10.03 sec in his first professional race at the distance. On May 3, 2008, he lowered his best time to 9.76 sec, then the world’s second fastest mark. Four weeks later in New York City, Bolt broke the world record, running 9.72 sec to defeat world champion Tyson Gay.

At the 2008 Olympic Games, Bolt became the first man since American Carl Lewis in 1984 to win the 100 metres, 200 metres, and 4 × 100-metre relay in a single Olympics and the first ever to set world records (9.69 sec, 19.30 sec, and 37.10 sec, respectively) in all three events. (However, a failed drug test by one of his 4 × 100 teammates led to Bolt’s having his gold medal in that event stripped.) His 0.66-sec winning margin in the 200-metre race was the largest in Olympic history, and his 0.20-sec edge over the second-place finisher in the 100 metres, despite beginning his victory celebration about 80 metres into the race, was the largest since Lewis won by the same margin. At the 2009 world championships, Bolt shattered his 100-metre record, winning the event final in 9.58 sec. Four days later he broke his own 200-metre record by the same 0.11-sec margin to win a second gold medal at the world championships.

Bolt was the heavy favourite in the sprint events heading into the 2011 world championships, but a false start disqualified him from the 100-metre final. Despite failing to medal in his signature race, Bolt recovered to capture golds in the 200 metres and the 4 × 100-metre relay, helping to set a new world record in the latter event. At the 2012 Olympics in London, Bolt defended his titles in the 100-metre and 200-metre events (setting an Olympic record in the former) to become the first person to win both races in consecutive Olympiads. In 2013 he won three gold medals at the world championships (100 metres, 200 metres, and 4 × 100-metre relay).

At the 2015 world championships Bolt again won gold medals in his three signature events (100 metres, 200 metres, and 4 × 100-metre relay), and his fourth career 200-metre gold extended his record for most wins in that race at the world championships. He cemented his role as the best sprinter in history at the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games, where he captured golds in the 100-metre, 200-metre, and 4 × 100-metre relay events, becoming the first person to win golds in the two individual sprints in three straight Olympics. He retired from athletics after the 2017 world championships, where he won a bronze medal in the 100-metre sprint and finished in eighth place as a member of the 4 × 100-metre relay team after injuring a hamstring during the final.

Sprint, also called dash, in athletics (track and field), a footrace over a short distance with an all-out or nearly all-out burst of speed, the chief distances being 100, 200, and 400 metres and 100, 220, and 440 yards.

Start of a women's 100-metre sprint

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Key People: Jesse Owens Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce Shirley Strickland de la Hunty Charley Paddock Marie-José Pérec

Related Topics: Running 100-metre race 200-metre race

The course for sprint races is usually marked off in lanes within which each runner must remain for the entire race. Originally sprinters used a standing start, but after 1884 sprinters started from a crouched position using a device called a starting block (legalized in the 1930s) to brace their feet (see photograph). Races are begun by a pistol shot; at 55 to 65 metres (60 to 70 yards), top sprinters attain maximum speed, more than 40 km per hour (25 miles per hour). After the 65-metre mark the runner begins to lose speed through fatigue.

Bob Beamon (U.S.) breaking the world record in the long jump at 8.90 metres (29.2 feet) during the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City.

READ MORE ON THIS TOPIC

athletics: The sprints

The relatively short sprint distances, ranging up to 400 metres, require a sustained top speed. Originally...

All important international races at 200 metres and 220 yards, as well as 400 metres and 440 yards, are run on an oval track. The starts are staggered (the lanes farther from the centre begin progressively farther forward on the track) so that each runner will cover an equal distance. As a result, the competitors, particularly in the 400 metres and 440 yards, have no exact knowledge of their respective positions until they have completed the final turn. Great emphasis is therefore placed on an athlete’s ability to judge his own pace, as well as upon his speed and endurance.

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