Usain Bolt: biography

Puma sponsored Usain Bolt is the fastest man on earth currently holding the 100 meter, 200 meter world records and the 100 meter relay record too. What will 2011 and London 2012 have in store for him?

Beginnings

Usain St Leo Bolt was born in Jamaica on 21 August 1986. He is the three-time World and Olympic gold medalist. At school Usain was gifted at athletics but also at cricket and football. In primary school he showed his talent for sprinting, running in the National Primary Schools meeting for his parish. In high school it was his cricket coach who noticed his pure speed and urged him to work harder as an athlete. Usain started off with two coaches both Dwayne Barrett and Pablo McNeil who was an ex-Olympic athlete. After winning the 100m and finishing 2nd in the national high school championships McNeil soon became his primary coach.

Career

It was in 2002 that Bolt finally made people stand up and realize his talent. He was competing for Jamaica in the World Junior Championships in Kingston where he won the 200m in a time of 20.61 seconds. In 2003 he flew out to the World Youth Championships and competed in the 200m, setting a new championship record of 20.40 seconds despite running into a strong head wind. This very same year he was awarded the IAAF (International Amateur Athletics Federation) Rising Star Award. In 2004 he turned professional and became the first Junior sprinter to run the 200m in sub 20 seconds with a time of 19.93 seconds. Since then he has been to one Olympics game in Beijing where he set a new world record in the 100m with a time of 9.69 seconds while slowing down to the finish line. At the time the 100m was still a new event to Bolt and people soon realized his huge potential. At the same games he also came away with Gold Medals in the 200m and the
4 x 100m relay. He repeated the Gold medal haul in Berlin at the World Championships a year later including breaking his own world record in the 100m and setting a new record in the 200m with times of 9.58 and 19.19 seconds respectively. London 2012 is a massive year and the question on everyone’s lips is will he be pushed by challengers like Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell?

Achievements

His personal bests currently stand at: 100m 9.58 seconds
150m 14.35 seconds
200m 19.19 seconds
300m 30.97 seconds
400m 45.28 seconds Major Senior Medals Beijing Olympics 3 x Gold 100,200m,4 x 100m relay
Berlin World Championships 3 x Gold 100,200m,4 x 100m relay