Athletes

More than 30 track and field athletes left China as Olympic champions. Only one departed a global superstar, and that was Usain Bolt.

9.69.
19.30.
37.10.
The times have become so familiar it’s easy to forget that before Bolt went to Beijing, they were just numbers like any other. Now though, they are the empirical evidence that the 22-year-old, happy-go-lucky, singing-and-dancing Jamaican has redefined the parameters of running fast.

It wasn’t just the times, either, it was how he ran them. First the 9.69 in the 100m final, where he stuttered slightly from the blocks, went from 50m to 70m in a blur, destroying the field as he did so, and then those famous last few metres, which he looked like he was jogging. How could a world record be broken so comprehensively by someone not running flat out? And what would happen when he did?

We soon found out. Next was his favourite event, the 200m, and a shot at one of the great world records, Michael Johnson’s 19.32. Bolt recognised that the only way he might get near it would be to go hard from the gun, so he did. The gasps as the clock stopped were of shock and awe. It had taken 16 years, but a man had run faster than the great Johnson.

The 4x100m relay simply confirmed Jamaica’s dominance, and was some consolation for anchorman Asafa Powell, whom Bolt had beaten and eclipsed. As for Usain – well, he ran his leg around the final bend in 9.7 secs.

But where had this explosion come from? And who had seen it coming? Bolt’s freakish (for a sprinter) height and leg speed marked him out and made him, at 15, the youngest ever World Junior 200m champion.

A few years of youthful laziness, hanging out in dance halls and injury followed before Bolt finally got serious about his talent. Under coach Glen Mills, who he joined in 2005, he blossomed, beating Don Quarrie’s national record for 200m in 2007, and then winning silver at the World Championships in Osaka.

2008 was the breakthrough. In May in New York, with a handful of 100m races under his belt to help build his 200m speed, he broke Powell’s world record, running 9.72. Suddenly an Olympic double seemed possible. Mills remained cautious, but Bolt improved almost every time he took to the track. Come Beijing, he was simply unstoppable.

The joy and fun he brought with him added to his legend. Bolt is the fastest man on earth, but has none of the macho swagger of previous incumbents. Instead, he is a man of the people, approachable, down to earth and unfazed by all of the fuss he’s caused. The next few years could be very special indeed.

Interview

There is no interview for Usain Bolt at the moment. We're hoping to catch up with him soon.