Usain St. Leo Bolt “Lightning Bolt”
What comes to your mind when you hear about Track and Field? Many people say that running is easy but they don't know how hard and tough it is to improve your speed, agility, leg power, strength, and etc. I want to introduce to you the life of the “Fastest Man” who ever lived on earth. He is Usain St. Leo Bolt, 34 years of age and he lives in Kingston, Jamaica. Usain Bolt was born on August 21, 1986 in Sherwood Content in the Trelawny section of Jamaica. His parents, Jennifer Bolt and Wellesley Bolt, owned a small grocery store. He has 2 siblings.Usain, his brother Sadeeki and sister Shrine helped them run the business. When he was a kid, he was already obsessed with sports. He showed great promise as a sprinter at an early age. When he was in primary school, he began entering regional races. At the age of 12, he was declared as the fastest sprinter in his hometown. After finishing primary school, he studied at William Knibb Memorial High School and his high school cricket coach urged him to pursue a career in track and field. Usain continued his development under the tutelage of Pablo McNeil and Dwayne Narrett. After enrolling at Knibb High School. At the age of 14, he won his first medal and took silver in the 200 meter run clocking 22.04 seconds. Even as a runner, I am 18 years old and my personal best in 200 meters is 24.72 seconds and at a young age, I can say that Usain is very potential and talented in running. Usain was not taking it seriously in his training but his height, size, speed, and strength kept him moving up the ranks of the nation’s elite sprinting prospects. By the age of 15, he had grown to 1.96 metres or 6’5 tall, and he physically stood out among his peers.
Usain competed in his first major event, representing Jamaica in a Caribbean regional meet called the CARIFTA Games in 2001. He ran the 400 meter dash and got his new personal best clocking 48.28 seconds. He also ran the 200 meter dash finishing with 21.81 seconds. He got silver medals in both races. Later that year, Usain got his opportunity to represent his country and appeared in his first international meet, the IAAF World Youth Championships or International Amateur Athletic Federation. It was held in Hungary and Usain set his new personal best in the 200 meters with 21.73 seconds. As Usain’s star grew brighter, he disappeared during trials for the 2002 CARIFTA Games. Usain hides in the back of a van. He was eventually discovered by police. Usain decided to move to Kingston so he could train under the Jamaica Amateur Athletic Association at the University of Technology. The request was directly from Prime Minister P. J. Patterson
Usain bettered those marks at the 2002 Central American and Caribbean Junior Championships. At the 2002 World Junior Championships in Kingston, Usain lowered his personal-best 200 time to 20.61 seconds. It became the history’s youngest world junior champion in that event. He was also part of teams that set national records in the 4 x 100 and 4 x 400 relays. In 2003, Usain won 4 gold medals in CARIFTA Games and he was awarded the Austin Sealy Trophy for the most outstanding athlete of the games. Usain won another gold in 2003 World Youth Championships in the event of 200 meter dash clocking 20.40 seconds and set the championship record. Michael Johnson, the 200 meter world-record holder, took note of Usain's potential but worried that the young sprinter might be over-pressured. Bolt competed in his last and final competition of Jamaican High School Championships in 2003. He broke the records of 200 meter with the time of 20.25 seconds and in 400 meter clocking 45.35 seconds. Bolt's runs were a significant improvement upon the previous records, beating the 400 meter record by almost a second and.200 meter best by more than half a second. Bolt decided to focus on 200 meter and to improve his time in this event. Under the guidance of new coach Fitz Coleman, Bolt turned professional in 2004, beginning with the CARIFTA Games in Bermuda. Usain became the first person to run 200 meters with sub 20 seconds. He took the world junior record with a time of 19.93 seconds. In the month of May in 2004, Bolt had suffered a hamstring injury and ruined the chance to compete in the World Junior Championship. Luckily, he was still chosen for the Jamaican Olympic Squad. Later that year, Usain Bolt was given a chance to compete in the 2004 Athens Olympics. Although, he was inhibited with a leg injury and was eliminated in the first round of the 200 meter event with a disappointing time of 21.05 seconds. American colleges offered Bolt track scholarships to train in the United States while continuing to represent his country, but Bolt refused them all. He stated that he was content and to stay in his country. In 2005, Bolt was handled by his new coach Glen Mills. Mills recognized Bolt’s potential and began training in preparation for the upcoming athletic competition. Bolt joined the Racers Track Club and partnered with more seasoned sprinters such as Kim Collins and Dwain Chambers. Misfortune awaited Bolt at the next major event, the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki. Usain felt that both his work ethic and athleticism had much improved since the 2004 Olympics, and he saw the World Championships as a way to live up to expectations, stating, "I really want to make up for what happened in Athens. Hopefully, everything will fall into place". Usain was qualified with the time of sub 21 seconds, but he suffered an injury in the finals and finished in last place with a time of 26.27 seconds.
Injuries were preventing him from completing a full professional athletics season, and the 18 year old Bolt still had not proven his mettle in the major world-athletics competitions. He was involved in a car accident in November. Even though he suffered only minor facial lacerations, his training schedule was further upset. After that, Bolt was less enthusiastic, and demanded that he feel comfortable in his sprinting. He suffered another hamstring injury in March 2006, forcing him to withdraw from the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, and he did not return to track events until May. After his recovery, Bolt was given new training exercises to improve flexibility. Bolt claimed his first major world medal two months later at the IAAF World Athletics Final in 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 Greece yielded Bolt's first senior international silver medal. Mills complied with Bolt's demand to run in the 100 meters.
In 2007, the silver medals from the 2007 Osaka World Championships boosted Bolt's desire to sprint, and he took a more serious, more mature stance towards his career. Bolt started the season competing in the 400 metres in order to improve his speed, winning two races and registering 45.54 seconds in Kingston. Bolt won the race in 150 meter the fastest time ever recorded for 150 meters with a time of 14.35 seconds. Fast forward to 2009, Bolt competed in the World Championships and was held in Berlin, Germany. The World Championships were held during August at the Olympic Stadium. The final competition for the 100 meter dash was the first time that Usain Bolt and Tyson Gay had met during the season, and Bolt set a new world record which stands to this day with a time of 9.58 seconds to win his first World Championship gold medal. He also hoped to crack Michael Johnson’s world record of 19.32 in the 200, set during the 1996 Summer Games. A week later, Usain was at it again, he won the 200 meter dash with the time of 19.19 seconds, setting a new world record. He finished in 19.19 seconds, shaving 0.11 seconds of his previous mark. Usain proved prophetic. Heading into the 2012 summer olympic games, Usain was qualified to compete in the London Olympics to represent his country. In the 100-meter final, Usain finished the race with 9.63 seconds setting the new olympic record. Usain followed that up with a time of 19.84 seconds in the 200 meters. Usain went after his sixth career gold medal a few days later in the 4 x 100 relay. He joined Blake, Michael Frater and Nesta Carter to smash Jamaica’s year-old world record with a time of 36.84 seconds. Usain Bolt got 3 gold medals in the 2012 London Olympics. At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Bolt won the 100 metres gold medal with a time of 9.81 seconds. Bolt became the first athlete to win the event three times at the Olympic Games. Bolt followed up his 100 meter win with a gold medal in the 200 meter with the time of 19.79 seconds which also makes him the first athlete to win the 200 m three times at the Olympic Games. At the 2017 World Athletics Championships, Bolt won his heat uncomfortably after a slow start in 10.07 seconds. In his semi-final, he improved his time to 9.98 seconds but he was beaten by Christian Coleman by 0.01. That race broke Bolt's 4 year winning streak in the 100 meter. Bolt participated as the anchor runner for Jamaica's 4×100-metre relay team in both the heats and the final. Jamaica won their heat comfortably in 37.95 seconds. In what was intended to be his final race, Bolt pulled up in agony with 50 metres to go and collapsed and limped to the track after what was later confirmed to be another hamstring injury. He refused a wheelchair and crossed the finish line one last time with the assistance of his teammates Omar McLeod, Julian Forte, and Yohan Blake. It was disappointing and a sign of him that his job was already done and he knew that it was the time to retire. It was the last race seeing Bolt competing in the track. Usain doesn’t think limits and in his training, he stated that, “Your conscience speaking, stop running, retire and go play football.” Usain Bolt has called time on his bid to become a professional football player, saying "it was fun while it lasted." The Jamaican spent eight weeks at A-League club Central Coast Mariners. During Bolt's time with the club, he played in two pre-season friendlies, netting twice against Macarthur South West. He once said, “Worrying gets you nowhere. if you turn up worrying about how you’re going to perform, you’ve already lost. Train hard, turn up, run your best and the rest will take care of itself.”
