Usain Bolt Biography
Summary
"Usain Bolt" (born August 21, 1986) is a Jamaican sprinter. He holds world and Olympic records in both the 100 metres and 200 metres, with times of 9.69 seconds and 19.30 seconds, respectively. He is the first man in history to break both world records at one Olympics, and the first man to win both the 100 and 200 metres events at the same olympics since Carl Lewis in 1984. His name and achievements in sprinting have earned him the media nickname 'Lightning Bolt'.
As a child, Bolt first became interested in sport through cricket but his speed meant his coaches urged him to focus on track and field instead. By 2001 Bolt had won silver medals in high school and regional competitions in the 200 and 400 metres sprints. He made his first impact on the world stage at the 2002 World Junior Championships, winning gold in the 200 metres and an additional two silver medals as part of Jamaica's relay team. This made him the youngest gold medallist in the history of the competition. Bolt gained more medals in the 200 metres in 2003 with record breaking performances in both the World Youth Championships and the Jamaican High School Championships.
He became the first junior sprinter to run the 200 metres in under 20 seconds, breaking Roy Martin's world junior record by two tenths of a second with 19.93 seconds in 2004. Injuries caused him to miss much of the 2004 and 2005 track and field seasons. The 2006 Grand Prix in Lausanne saw a return to form with a new personal best of 19.88 seconds. Bolt gained a silver and three bronze medals in international competitions that year. Bolt improved in the 2007 season, beating Don Quarrie's 200 metres national record with a run of 19.75 seconds and winning gold in his 100 metres debut with 10.03 seconds. He won silver at the 2007 Osaka World Championships, second to track rival Tyson Gay.
Bolt had a record breaking season in 2008, beating Asafa Powell's 100 metres world record with 9.72 seconds in May. He also improved the 200 metres Jamaican record with 19.67 seconds in Athens. Bolt had his most successful Olympics to date at the 2008 Beijing Games, winning two golds and breaking both 100 and 200 metres records. His time of 9.69 seconds makes him the first sprinter to run the 100 metres below 9.7 seconds without wind-assistance.
Early life
Bolt was born in Trelawny, Jamaica, on August 21, 1986. As a child, he was successful in the annual, national primary schools' meeting for his parish, and enjoyed playing cricket, specialising in fast bowling. Upon his entry to William Knibb Memorial High School, his cricket coach noticed Bolt's speed on the pitch and urged him to try track and field events. Pablo McNeil and Dwayne Barrett coached Bolt, encouraging him to focus his energy on improving his athletic abilities. The school had a history of athletic success with past students including Michael Green. Bolt won his first annual high school championships medal in 2001, winning the silver medal in the 200 metres with a time of 22.04 seconds.
Performing in his first Caribbean national event, Bolt clocked a personal best of 48.28 seconds in the 400 metres in the 2001 CARIFTA Games, winning a silver medal. Also, Bolt won a silver medal in the 200-metre dash--finishing in 21.81 seconds. He made his first appearance on the world stage at the 2001 IAAF World Youth Championships in Debrecen, Hungary. Running in the 200-metre event, he failed to qualify for the finals, but he still set a new personal best of 21.73 seconds. In 2002, Bolt won both the 200-metre and 400-metre events in the High School Championships, CARIFTA Games, and Central American and Caribbean Junior Championships. He set championship records for both 200 metres and 400 metres in the 2002 CARIFTA games with 21.12 seconds and 47.33 seconds respectively. He continued to set records, with 20.61 seconds and 47.12 seconds finishes at the CAC Junior Championships.
Rise to prominence
The 2002 World Junior Championships in front of a home crowd in Kingston, Jamaica, offered Bolt a chance to showcase his talent on the world stage. By the age of 15, he had grown to tall, and he physically stood out amongst his peers. He won the 200 metres, in a time of 20.61 seconds, a new personal best. As a member of the Jamaican sprint relay team, Bolt took two silver medals and set national junior records in the 4x100 metres and 4x400 metres with 39.15 seconds and 3:04.06 minutes, respectively. Bolt's 200-metre win made him the youngest world-junior gold medallist ever. The flow of medals continued as he won another gold at the 2003 World Youth Championships. He set a new championship record in the 200 metres with 20.40 seconds, despite a 1.1-m/s head wind.
Bolt turned his main focus to the 200 metres and equalled Roy Martin's world junior record of 20.13 seconds at the Pan-American Junior Championships. In his final Jamaican High School Championships in 2003, he finished the 200 metres in 20.25 seconds, beating the previous record by a margin of 0.57 seconds. In the 400 metres, he crossed the line in 45.30 seconds to beat the old record of 46.17 seconds. As the reigning 200-metre champion at both the World Youth and World Junior championships, Bolt hoped to take a clean sweep of the world 200-metre championships in the Senior World Championships in Paris. However, he was not able to compete because of a bout with conjunctivitis before the event. This ruined his training schedule, causing him to withdraw.
Professional athletics career
Under the guidance of new coach Fitz Coleman, Bolt turned professional in 2004, beginning with the CARIFTA games in Bermuda. He became the first junior sprinter to run the 200 metres in under 20 seconds, breaking Roy Martin's world junior record by two tenths of a second with 19.93 seconds. Bolt headed to the 2004 Athens Olympics with confidence and a new record on his side. However, he was hampered by a leg injury, and he was eliminated in the first round of the 200 metres with a disappointing 21.05 seconds. American colleges offered Bolt track scholarships on the strength of his performances, but the teenager from Trelawny refused them all, stating that he was content to stay in his homeland of Jamaica. Bolt instead chose the surroundings of the University of Technology, Jamaica, as his training ground, busying himself with the university's primitive track and weight room.
The following year, 2005, signalled a fresh start for Bolt in the form of a new coach, Glen Mills, and a new attitude to athletics. Mills recognised Bolt's potential and aimed to cease the sprinter's unprofessional approach to the sport. The year began well as he registered his 200-metres season's best at London's Crystal Palace in July, running 19.99 seconds. Misfortune awaited Bolt at the next major event: the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki. Bolt qualified with runs under 21 seconds, but he suffered an injury in the final, finishing last with a time of 26.27 seconds. Eighteen-year-old Bolt still had not proved his mettle in the major world athletics competitions. Bolt soon recovered and continued to improve, reaching the world top 5 rankings in 2005 and 2006. He ran 19.88 seconds, a new personal best, at the 2006 Grand Prix in Lausanne, Switzerland, finishing behind Xavier Carter and Tyson Gay to earn a bronze medal.
Bolt claimed his first major world medal two months later at the IAAF World Athletics Final in Stuttgart, Germany. He passed the finishing post with a time of 20.10 seconds, gaining a bronze medal in the process. The IAAF World Cup in Athens, Greece, yielded Bolt's first senior international silver medal. Wallace Spearmon from the United States won gold with a championship record of 19.87 seconds, beating Bolt's respectable time of 19.96 seconds. Further 200-metres honours on both the regional and international scale awaited Bolt in 2007. The young Jamaican yearned to run in the 100 metres, but coach Mills diverted his attention, stating that he could run the shorter distance if he broke the 200-metres national record. In the Jamaican Championships, he ran 19.75 seconds in the 200 metres, breaking the 36-year-old Jamaican record held by Don Quarrie by 0.11 seconds.
Mills complied with Bolt's demand to run in the 100 metres, and he was entered to run the event at the 23rd Vardinoyiannia meeting in Rethymno, Crete. In his debut run, he set a career best of 10.03 seconds, winning the gold medal and feeding his enthusiasm for the event. He built on this achievement at the World Championships in Osaka, Japan, winning a silver medal, which set a new championship record. The Jamaican national record fell when Bolt partnered with Asafa Powell, Marvin Anderson, and Nesta Carter in the 4x100 metres relay. However, their finish in 37.89 seconds was not enough to beat the Americans' time of 37.78 seconds. No gold medals were gleaned at the major tournaments in 2007, but Mills felt that Bolt's technique was much improved. Mills pinpointed improvements in Bolt's balance at the turns over 200 metres and an increase in his stride frequency, giving him more driving power on the track.
World record breaker
The silver medals from the 2007 Osaka World Championships boosted Bolt's desire to run, and he took a more serious, more mature stance towards his career. Bolt continued to develop in the 100 metres, and he entered to run in the event at the Jamaica Invitational in Kingston. On 3 May 2008, Bolt ran 9.76 seconds, aided by a strong tail wind of 1.8 m/s. This was the second-fastest legal performance in the history of the event; second only to compatriot Asafa Powell's 9.74-seconds record set the previous year in Rieti, Italy. Rival Tyson Gay lauded the performance, praising Bolt's form and technique especially. The Jamaican surprised even himself with the time, but coach Glen Mills remained confident that there was more to come.
Mills's prediction came true before the end of the month when Bolt established a new 100-metres world record on May 31, 2008. Pushed on by a strong, legal tail wind of 1.7 m/s, Bolt ran 9.72 seconds at the Reebok Grand Prix held in the Icahn Stadium in New York City, breaking the 9.74 seconds record set by Powell. The record time was even more remarkable in light of the fact that it was only his fifth senior run over the distance. Gay again finished second and conceded to Bolt's physical superiority, stating, 'it looked like his knees were going past my face'. Commentators noted that Bolt appeared to have gained a psychological advantage over fellow Olympic contender Gay. Turning his efforts to the 200 metres, Bolt proved that he could excel in multiple events, breaking the national record again with a 19.67-seconds finish in Athens, Greece. His confidence was building, and he was sure that he would perform well in the upcoming Olympics.
Bolt announced that he would double-up with the 100 metres and 200 metres events at the Beijing Summer Olympics and the new 100 metres world record holder was the favourite to win both. Michael Johnson, the 200 and 400 metres record holder, personally backed the sprinter, saying he did not believe that a lack of experience would work against him. Bolt qualified for the final with 9.92 and 9.85 seconds in the quarter and semifinals respectively. In the Olympic 100 metres final Bolt broke new ground, winning in 9.69 seconds. This was an improvement upon his own world record and he was well ahead of second place finisher Richard Thompson, who finished in 9.89 seconds. Not only was the record set without a favourable wind (+0.0 m/s) but he visibly slowed down to celebrate before he finished and his shoelace was untied. Bolt continued running past the post, enjoying his victory. Unusually, he was relaxed about setting the world record and instead declared his satisfaction with winning the race, becoming the Olympic champion and earning Jamaica's first gold medal of the Games. Olympic medallist Kriss Akabusi construed Bolt's chest slapping before the finish line as showboating, saying that the Jamaican could have run 9.50 seconds if he had been more sportsmanlike. Bolt denied this was the purpose of his mid-race celebration by saying 'I wasn't bragging. When I saw I wasn't covered, I was just happy.'
Bolt then focused on attaining a gold medal in the 200 metres event, aiming to emulate Carl Lewis' double win in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Michael Johnson felt that Bolt would easily win gold but believed his world record of 19.32 seconds set at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta would remain intact at the Olympics. Bolt eased through the first and second round of the 200 metres, jogging towards the end of his run both times. He won his semifinal and progressed to the last 9 as the favourite to win. At the final the following day he won Jamaica's fourth gold of the Games, setting a new world and Olympic record of 19.30 seconds. Johnson's record fell despite the fact Bolt was impeded by a 0.9 m/s headwind. The feat made him the first sprinter since Don Quarrie to hold both 100 and 200 metres world records simultaneously and the first since the introduction of electronic timing. Furthermore, Bolt became the first sprinter to break both records at the same Olympics.
Personal life
Bolt grew up in Trelawny, Jamaica, with his parents, Jennifer and Wellesley Bolt, and his sister Sherine. Bolt expresses a love for dancing and his character is frequently described as laid-back and relaxed. The first sport to interest him was cricket and he said if he wasn't a sprinter he would be a fast bowler instead. Bolt's Jamaican track and field idols include Herb McKenley and, former Jamaican 200 metres record holder, Don Quarrie. Michael Johnson, the former 200 metres world and Olympic record holder, is also held in high esteem by Bolt.
After winning the 200 metres title in the 2002 World Junior Championships in Kingston, Jamaica, Bolt signed a sponsorship deal with Puma. To promote Bolt's chase for Olympic glory in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, Puma released a series of videos including Bolt's then-world-record-setting run in Icahn Stadium and his Olympic preparations. After his world record breaking run in New York City, which was preceded by a lightning storm, the press frequently made puns on the Jamaican's name, nicknaming him 'Lightning Bolt' and the 'Bolt from the blue'. During the Beijing 2008 100 metres final, Bolt wore golden Puma spikes that had 'Beijing 100m Gold' emblazoned across them.
Statistics
Achievements
Bolt's personal best of 9.69 seconds is the fastest ever legal time. Tyson Gay had a run of 9.68 seconds at the 2008 US Olympic Trials but a tail wind of 4.1 m/s exceeded the legal limit of 2.0 m/s set by the IAAF, nullifying its inclusion as a world record. Obadele Thompson also made a run with 9.69 seconds in 1996, not recognised as it was in a tail wind of 5.0 m/s. Bolt has now followed with a world record in the 200m sprint with a record time of 19.31s in a headwind of -0.9m/s making his official time 19.30s, beating Michael Johnson's previous world record of 19.32s.
External links
(XX CAC Senior Championships - 2005)
Credit
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article about Usain Bolt.
