"Who is this little dude" -2x NCAA Champion Wallace Spearmon opens up on meeting Usain Bolt for the first time

By Riddhi Acharya

Modified Jun 21, 2024 03:37 GMT

Usain Bolt may be the fastest sprinter alive, but Wallace Spearmon didn't get the hype when the two originally met. The American recently broke down his thoughts before his first clash with the Jamaican, leaving fans in splits.

While they were never exactly rivals, Bolt and Spearmon were close competitors in the early 2000s. In fact, Spearmon, the older sprinter between the two, was the first to break out onto the international scene, winning his maiden World Championships medals two years before his Jamaican counterpart.

While Usain Bolt would later go on to dominate the sprinting world in an unthinkable manner, Wallace Spearmon didn't think he was all that big of a deal when the duo first met.

In an appearance on Justin Gatlin's ‘Ready Set Go' podcast, the American broke down his thoughts on meeting a young Bolt, saying

“I'm watching this Jamaican dude play tag with these little girls, and I'm like.. this is who y'all say gonna beat me? There's no way, there's no way. There is literally no way this man is better. I'm like bruh na, that's easy work, no problem.”

“They shoot the gun, so Tyson (Gaye) and him (Usain Bolt) are up front and I walk them both down, I win. But then we go to Worlds, and all of a sudden, I'm nervous, I'm serious. And he comes over and he starts messing with me. I'm like ‘who is this little dude man’. I think I'm like 19 and Bolt’s like 16 or 17 at the time, so he young.”

Usain Bolt vs Wallace Spearmon: Head-to-head comparison between the two

When Usain Bolt and Wallace Spearmon first began competing against each other, the latter was the faster runner between the two.

Their first clash came in the 200m at the Crystal Palace Norwich Union London Grand Prix on July 22, 2005, where Spearmon beat the Jamaican by 0.10 seconds. The next time they faced each other was the IAAF World Championships 200m semifinals, where the American finished second and Bolt finished fourth. Later, Spearmon would go on to win silver, while Bolt settled for eighth place.

However, after these early losses, the Jamaican quickly caught up to his competitor. Bolt beat Spearmon for the first time in 2006 and led the duo's head-to-head 17-10 in the 200m by the time they had both called time on their career. The two only raced each other twice in the 100m, with the world record holder winning both encounters.