Usain Bolt
The Fastest Man in the World
Usain Bolt, the Jamaican-born sprinter, celebrates a first-place win in the men’s 200-meter race at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Image adapted from a photo courtesy of David J. Phillip/AP.
Usain Bolt’s stellar performance at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China—where he won three gold medals—led to him being called the fastest man alive. He was the first man in the history of the Olympics to win two signature races, the 100- and 200-meter dash, by setting new world records for each. Bolt followed this impressive feat by winning three more gold medals at the London Summer Games in 2012, where he ran a record 9.63 seconds in the men’s 100-meter race. With that, he became the first man in Olympic history to set three world records during competition, and he did it consecutively. Bolt went on to win the 100- and 200-meter races in three Olympic Games back-to-back, which no one had done before him.
Usain Bolt’s sprinting success led to lucrative partnerships with Puma and watchmaker Hublot. He was also named Chief Entertainment Officer of the French champagne brand, Maison Mumm. All told, Bolt is the highest-paid athlete in the history of athletics.
Usain St. Leo Bolt was born in Sherwood Content, a small town in Trelawny Parish, Jamaica, on August 21, 1986. His parents, Wellesley and Jennifer Bolt owned a rural grocery. Growing up, Bolt developed an early love of sports. At Waldensia Primary, which he attended in Trelawny, he ran in the annual school meet and became the fastest runner in the 100-meter race by age twelve. Bolt also enjoyed playing cricket and absorbed European football games on television. Bolt was so enamored with football he considered a career in the sport until a cricket coach at his school advised him to try track and field instead. He heeded that advice in high school, where he began to develop his talent for sprinting.
In 2001, when he was 14, Bolt won his first championship medal in high school, taking silver in the 200-meter dash. At 15, he made history by becoming the youngest gold medallist at the World Junior Championships. The same year, he was also awarded the Rising Star Award from the International Association of Athletics Foundation.
Though a hamstring injury sidelined him from competing in the World Junior Championships in 2004, his impressive sprinting abilities led to Bolt being chosen for the Jamaican Olympic team ahead of the Olympics held in Athens that year. While Bolt competed in Athens, a leg injury prevented him from winning any medals. Despite reaching top rankings over the next two years, injuries kept Bolt from finishing an entire season as a professional athlete, which left him somewhat deflated. But things started to change in 2007, when Bolt set a new record for the national 200-meter race and took silver twice in Osaka, Japan, during the World Championships. Bolstered by the wins, Bolt decided to ramp up his efforts.
That resulted in his record-breaking feats at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics. At the 2016 Olympics held in Rio, Bolt again won the gold in all three events: the 100-meter, 200-meter, and relay races. He also completed the elusive “triple-triple,” which means he won three gold medals in the same three events during three consecutive Olympic Games.
Bolt later said of his career:
“Everybody says winning’s easy for me. I’m like, ‘Why would you say that?’ Yes, it looks easy. But it’s not. There’s a lot of work and dedication. It’s rough. I want people to understand that what they see on the track is because I work so hard to get there.”
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