Looking back at Usain Bolt’s remarkable Olympic career
If one looks at Usain Bolt’s career achievements and compare the time spent by him on the track in order to accomplish those medals, you will realise it is an incredible feat, one that can’t be replicated easily.
The big Jamaican has been part of four different Olympic Games, and has participated in 10 events, winning Gold in 9 of them.
Counting heats, semi-finals and the finals, Bolt has been on the track for about 325 seconds, an astonishingly low number. However, it isn’t surprising when you look at the events he particpates in.
The greatest short-distance sprinter of all time and possibly the greatest ever athlete to have graced the Olympics, Bolt is known for his effortlessness while out on the track and his jovial nature.
But, when the time comes to buckle down and focus on the task at hand, there is no one better than the Jamaican sprinter in the world.
The beginning of his career at the Olympics was quite unfortunate and sad, with the runner failing to qualify for the finals of the 200m in 2004, with his performances affected by a hamstring injury.
The pressure on an 18-year-old Bolt was immense, but he refused to give up, instead choosing to focus on regaining his fitness and working to improve his work ethic.
Having overcome the initial block following his failure to qualify for the 200m finals in Athens, the Jamaican focused predominantly on strengthening his core and improving his explosive speed.
A big part of all the initial fear was washed away when he stepped out for the 2008 Beijing Games, where he set the record straight and made sure the world had a new favourite to cheer for.
He started his medal collection spree by winning the 100 metres in a world record time of 9.69 seconds, blowing his own time of 9.72 seconds, which was the previous best time in the world, out of the water.
The best part about his win was that he looked to have visibly slowed down after the 60m stage, celebrating with the crowd and cantering to the win.
Bolt recorded such a quick timing despite there being no wind assistance, and ensured his height did not hinder him in any way, showing a reaction time of 0.165 seconds.
He then went on to do the double, winning the 200m, also in record time, crossing the line in 19.30 seconds, smashing American legend Michael Johnson’s record of 19.32 seconds by 0.02 seconds.
To put these achievements into perspective, it was the first time since Carl Lewis did it in 1984 that an athlete had successfully run and won both the 100m and 200m.
Now, in addition to that, imagine a runner who accomplished these crazy wins without actually breaking a sweat but doing so while enjoying himself, celebrating with the crowd and estalblishing his supremacy on all his competitors.
The same Games also saw him spearhead the 4*100 m relay team to a Gold medal win, breaking another world record in the process.
His scintillating Olympic run saw his getting a BMW from one of his sponsors, but what was lying in store for Bolt would have definitely fazed any regular athlete.
Out on a drive in his car with a couple of friends, he was involved in a major car crash which resulted in his car getting mangled properly, with the Jamaican lucky to escape with just some bruises and a deep cut in his feet.
The laceration in his foot kept him out of action for a bit but he continued to train and fight to continue improving, eventually getting back in shape for the World Championships.
He won all three events in Berlin in 2009, before continuing his dominance over the course of the next two years, going into London 2012, where he repeated his heroics from 2008, going on to set more records.
By defending both his 100m and 200m titles from Beijing, he became the first man in the history of the sport to defend both the 100 and 200m titles. He didn’t stop there, helping Jamaica clinch the 4*100m relay Gold as well, for the second time running.
Coming into the 2016 Olympics in Rio, he was still the prime favourite, though the margin of his domination had gone down, understandably, as Bolt focused more on conditioning and getting himself ready for Brazil, what with him approaching the age of 30.
He didn’t participate in as many events as before, but he was still able to complete the treble at both the 2013 and 2015 World Championships, showing he was still the man to beat.
In what was the closest race of his Olympic career, he started off slower than usual in the 100m finals, trailing Justin Gatlin of the US for the first 80 metres, before showing tremendous speed to pull away, eventually winning with some margin and sporting a huge grin on his face!
The 200 metres run was his easiest medal of the 2016 Olympics, as his brilliant start and long strides got him off to a comfortable lead, and he was able to maintain the advantage without much exertion.
He completed the triple triple by winning the 4*100m Gold with the Jamaican team once more, bringing to an end, in his own words, one of the greatest careers of all time.
If one looks at his stats, he participated in 9 finals in his Olympic career, winning all 9 of them, some by huge margins, showing exactly how dominant he was and how a lot of his secrets were mental, as his composure and ability to thrive under pressure took him to the win every single time.
A career that has seen him conquer every challenge there exists in short distance sprinting, Usain Bolt will go down in the history books as one of the best athletes of all time, if not the best, with his only competitor possibly being Michael Phelps.
In an age when every athlete is under the dope cloud, Bolt has done the impossible and gone through his entire career without a blot on his achievements, helping people across the world fall in love with the sport again.
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