Following his fitness worry for the Olympics and doubts hanging over his participation for the Rio Olympic Games, the Jamaican sprinter, Usain Bolt is ready to prove critics wrong as the Olympic record holder is set to light Brazil.
The world’s fastest man is bidding for an unprecedented “triple triple” of gold medals in Brazil, hoping to become the first athlete to win the 100 and 200-meter as well as the 4×100-meter relay title at three consecutive Olympic Games.
And as the Russian doping scandal threatens to overshadow the competition, but the 29-year-old is prepared to deliver at the track and field event.
“I know the sport needs me to win or it needs me to come out on top and that’s the same thing I want.
“We want the same thing, so I’m just working hard and staying focused.”
The Jamaican in recent months has battled several injuries, but now looks relaxed with no signs of pains after a frustrating year so far.
Bolt was forced out of the recently 200-meter final at the Jamaican trials with a torn hamstring, although he had clocked a time of 9.88 seconds over 100 meters in June.
Insisting he’s feeling no ill effects from the injury, Bolt says he can still run faster than he’s ever ran before over 200 meters at least.
“No, I don’t personally think so,” he said when asked if his record-breaking days were behind him.
“I think the 100, for me, is always going to be harder because it’s so technical,” Bolt added. “It’s all about me getting a good start and executing right and stuff like that.
“But I think always, in 200, there’s room for running faster. So I really want to try to go after the 200-meter world record this year.”
With Bolt set to turn 30 on the final day of competition at the Olympics, track and field is facing up to the fact that he can’t go on forever.
He admits that his body is starting to feel the strain and that it takes longer to bounce back from injuries. One day, athletics will have to wave goodbye to his “Lightning Bolt” salute.
Bolt has previously suggested he will retire after the 2017 World Championships and he predicts it could be a while before sport sees another athlete as quick as he.
“It’s going to be a long time, I personally think, before somebody comes who is as talented as me, to break my records,” he responded when asked about the future of sprinting.
“You never know what the future holds, but I don’t think it will be anytime soon.”
Bolt, a six-time Olympic champion who won the 200m at the Anniversary Games in London, have come under criticisms from fellow sprint rivals; American sprinter, Justin Gatlin, faulted the inclusion of the Jamaican for the Olympics.
Gatlin believed his main 100m rival, who has struggled with a hamstring injury got preferential treatment from his country.
“He’s injured, gets a medical pass, that’s what his country does. Our country doesn’t do that,” Gatlin argued.
Coming from most people, those words would sound unbearably arrogant. But from Bolt’s mouth it sounds like the most natural thing in the world.
As well as a star on the track, he’s also a financial success. Bolt ranks 32nd of Forbes’ list of the world’s highest-paid athletes, a long-term contract with sports brand PUMA contributes to his estimated annual earnings of $30 million.
“It’s pretty cool!” he said. “At first it was like, ‘Yeah, whatever. I’m just happy to win gold medals.’ But the more you get used to it and people say it more, then I start hanging out with my friends and I see a footballer and I’m like ‘Yo, I’m the fastest man in the world.'”
It’s a fact that Bolt still remains the fastest man in the world. But the can he replicate his Olympics form in Rio?
Explaining himself, Bolt exclaimed: “With footballers, you have to debate who the best is.
“But no one can debate who the fastest man in the world is.”
As the summer games resume in Brazil, the six-time Olympics champion, Bolt, would be hoping to clinch another Olympics record and see his name written in the history books once again.
Anthony Nlebem
