Usain Bolt Feature

With a name like Usain St Leo Bolt, you’d be forgiven for thinking that ‘the fastest man ever’ was born to be a sprinter. Would he be the man he is today if his name was Usain Puddle? I hardly think so.

But it wasn’t until he reached high school that the Jamaican superstar really began to make the world of sprinting his own. As he grew up in a small Caribbean town in Trelawny, Usain dedicated his life to football and cricket whilst his parents ran the local grocery store. Hardly the glamorous lifestyle we associate with one of the biggest personalities in world sport.

Thankfully, his cricket coach noticed his speed on the pitch when fielding was what you might call, better than average, and urged the lanky teenager to try his hand at track and field. By 2001, the Bolt we know and love had started to emerge, winning 200 metre Silver in the annual High School Championships, frustrating his coach along the way with a lack of dedication, and a penchant for practical jokes.

By the start of 2003, Bolt already had seven gold’s and four silver’s to his name at junior level. And by the time he turned professional in 2004, he was the most exciting prospect in all of world athletics.

Few will have remembered Bolt in the Athens Olympics, an injury hampered performance led to a disappointing first round exit, a setback which could have sent a much weaker man’s career spiralling downwards, but not Bolt.

In 2005, Bolt began working with new coach Glen Mills, he dedicated his time and effort on a much more serious level, and in the next 3 years, won gold in the 2005 CAC Championships in Nassau, and silver in both the 200 metres and 4x100 metre relay in the 2007 Osaka world championships.

Then, in 2008, the man they call the ‘Lightning Bolt’ went to Beijing, the rest, as they say, is history.