$90,000,000
Usain Bolt
Net Worth
Born in (City)
Sherwood Content
Born in (Country)
Jamaica
Date of Birth
21st December, 1986
Date of Death
-
Mother
Jennifer Bolt
Father
Wellesley
Children
- Olympia Lightning Bolt
About
From Beijing to London to Rio, it’s gold all the way. You open a wiki to read about him and you see gold all over it. That’s the audacity of the Jamaican star, that’s his authority over the sport. A sporting Giant, Usain Bolt, is a Jamaican former sprinter, widely considered to be the greatest sprinter of all time. He is a world record holder in the 100 meters, 200 meters and 4 × 100 meters relay. An 8 time Olympic champion, 11 time world champion and widely considered as the greatest sprinter of all time. A man whose life is measured in fraction of seconds, but then, the legend lives for decades or even centuries.
Early Life
On 21 August 1986, Bolt was born into a middle-class Jamaican family who ran a local grocery store in a small town in Jamaica. Bolt spent his time playing cricket and football. He claims that he thought of nothing other than sports as a child. He was a supporter of Pakistani Cricket team and admired Waqar Younis. He attended Waldensia primary, where he began showing his sprint potential when he ran in his parish’s annual national primary school meet. By the age of 12, Bolt had become the school’s fastest runner over the 100m distance. Cricket was the first sport to interest Bolt. Upon his entry into William Knibb Memorial high school, he continued to focus on other sports but his cricket coach noticed Bolt’s speed on pitch and urged him to try track and field events. The school had a history of success in Athletics with past students. Bolt won his first annual high school championship in 2001 and this turned out to be the life changing point of his life. Even though he had been performing for Jamaica in several events and bringing home medals, silvers often, he didn’t take athletics or himself seriously. He was still mischievous with his practical jokes and even detained by the police.
Road to Success
He rose to prominence post his championship best records in 200m and 400m in CARIFTA games. He continued to set records in the central American and Caribbean Junior Championships. Bolt was given a chance to prove himself in front of the home crowd when the 2002 world junior championships were held in Kingston, Jamaica. He was just 15 years old by then and grew up to be 6 ft. 5 inch in height and stood out among all the competitors. He brought home gold and became the youngest to win the world junior championship ever. From then, the rush of medals continued. Under the new coach, Bolt turned professional in 2004, beginning with the CARIFTA Games. He became the first sprinter to run 200m in under 20 seconds. He faced several injuries during 2004 to 2006 and 2007 Osaka world championship helped Bolt to take a serious and more mature stance towards his career. He entered the 2008 summer Olympics as the new 100m record holder and he doubled up with both 100m and 200m events. He was the favourite to win both the events. Bolt had set up a new record with just 9.69s in 100m race and there were several scientific explanations which claimed that had he not slowed down to celebrate before winning, he would have finished the race in 9.60s. He won gold in both the 200m and 400m relay at the 2008 Olympics. He repeated the success again in 2012 Olympics in all 3 sprinting events and became the first to defend the Olympic title since 1988. Bolt winning his second gold in 100m in 2012 summer Olympics came just minutes before Jamaica's 50th anniversary of their independence and he gave all his people one more reason to celebrate.
Challenges
The chance to perform in front of his home crowd in the 2002 World Junior Championships put him under a sea of pressure. He was so stressed that he even wore his shoe on the wrong foot. He eventually realized it before the race and vowed never again to let himself be affected by pre-race nerves. A hamstring injury hampered his chances of competing in the 2004 world junior championships. He suffered another hamstring in march 2006, forcing him to withdraw from the 2006 commonwealth games and that kept him away from the track events for 3 months. For someone who aced the sport throughout his career, it’s a shame that it ended in another hamstring injury during the 2017 world Athletics championship. With 50m to the finishing line, Bolt collapsed to the track. However, he refused a wheelchair and finished the line for one last time with the help of his team mates.
Failures
The biggest and probably the only set back after he took himself seriously, was the 2004 summer Olympics held at Athens. He entered the event with a record under his name but was hampered by a leg injury and was eliminated in the first stage of 200 meters with a disappointing time of 21.05s. An injury to Bolt's hamstring in March 2014 caused him to miss nine weeks of training.
Achievements
Usain Bolt has participated in four Olympics and has won nine gold medals.|At the 2008 ‘Beijing Olympics,’ he won gold medals in the 100m, 200m, and 4x100m relay, finishing the races in 9.69 seconds, 19.30 seconds, and 37.10 seconds, respectively.|At the 2012 ‘London Olympics,’ he once again won three gold medals. He won the 100m event in 9.63 seconds, 200m in 19.32 seconds, and 4x100m relay in 36.84 seconds.|At the 2016 ‘Rio Olympics,’ he won gold medals in all three track events and achieved the ‘triple-triple.’ He won the 100m event in 9.81 seconds, 200m in 19.78 seconds, and 4x100m relay in 37.27 seconds.|In the 2002 ‘World Junior Championships,’ he won the gold medal, becoming the youngest person to do so.|He received four medals in the ‘CARIFTA’ games held in 2003. This is considered to be an incredible feat.
Quotes
- There are better starters than me but I’m a strong finisher.
- I know what I can do, so I never doubt myself.
- I don’t think limits.
- Win from within.