Usain Bolt

Usain Bolt first came to international attention when he won the 200 metres at the 2002 World Junior Championships, adding the World Youth title at 200 metres in 2003. He competed at the 2004 Olympics in that event but failed to get out of the early rounds. In 2007 Bolt won a silver medal in the 200 at the World Championships, presaging his 2008 breakout year. On 31 May 2008 at the Reebok Grand Prix in New York, Bolt broke the 100 metre world record by recording 9.72, setting him up as a favorite for the sprint event at the 2008 Olympics.

Together with Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt was the star of the Beijing Games, in which he won three gold medals. His first victory came in the 100 metres, winning with ease in a world record time of 9.69, despite easing down in the final metres to celebrate. He added golds in the 200 metres, breaking Michael Johnson’s 1996 world record in the process, and the 4×100 metres relay, breaking another world record with his teammates.

Bolt, having become the icon of track & field athletics, repeated this performance at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, winning the same three events and recording world records in the 100 (9.58) and 200 metres (19.19). At the 2011 Worlds, he stumbled slightly when he false started in the 100 and was disqualified but he repeated as gold medalist in the 200 and the 4x100 relay. This led to his 2012 year, when Bolt became the first track athlete to win 3 Olympic gold medals at two consecutive Olympics, again winning both sprints and the sprint relay with the Jamaican team. Bolt then repeated this feat at the 2013 and 2015 World Championships, giving him five major international championships (2 Olympics, 3 Worlds) at which he won the sprint treble, and established himself without peer and as the greatest sprinter of all-time.

Bolt continued to run and competed at the 2016 Rio Olympics. He again won the sprint triple, winning the 100 and 200, and anchoring Jamaica to sprint relay gold. This seemed to give him nine gold medals, equalling the marks of the redoubtable Finnish distance runner Paavo Nurmi and legendary Carl Lewis. However, shortly before Rio, Bolt’s teammate on the 2008 relay, Nesta Carter, was revealed to have a positive doping test at Beijing. In January 2017, Carter was sanctioned and disqualified, which also led Jamaica to lose that gold medal, bringing Bolt’s total down to eight golds.

Personal Bests: 100 – 9.58 (2009); 200 – 19.19 (2009).