HSportspersons seem to have their own way of handling their critics, politicians and even dictators. No wonder a black American named James Cleveland Owens dared to rubbish Adolf Hitler's theory of racial superiority and sneaked away with four gold medals right under the dictator’s nose at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. The athletic world had to wait for almost half a century before a genius named Carl Lewis repeated the performance of Jesse Owens at the 1984 Olympics.

After yet another half the number of those years, the Beijing Olympics of 2008 saw an athletic performance nearly as wonderful as the two mentioned above from a Jamaican athlete named Usain Bolt. Bolt did not win four gold medals like Owens or Lewis but the greatness of his feat lay in the fact that he won the 100 metres, 200 metres and 4x100 metres runs in new world record timings; a feat that had never happened in any of the Olympics outside the swimming pools. What was more remarkable about the achievement was that the 200 metre world record was achieved against a head wind of 0.9 metres/second.

In July 2009, the sprint superstar powered away to win the 100 metres at the London Grand Prix in 9.91 seconds, leaving behind former world record-holder Asafa Powell (in sixth place), who before the race insisted Bolt could be beaten.

Event	Time	Records	Venue
150 m	14.35 secs	World best	UK (May 2009)
200 m	19.30 secs	WR & OR	Beijing (Aug 2008)
100 m	9.69 secs	WR & OR	Beijing (Aug 2008)
4x100 m relay	37.10 secs	WR & OR	Beijing (Aug 2008)
400 m relay	45.28 secs	-	Jamaica (May 2007)

(WR=World Record, OR=Olympic Record

Born in Trelawny, Jamaica on August 21, 1986, the 6 feet 5 inches tall athlete turned professional in 2004 and started training under a new coach, Fitz Coleman. It was, however, a disappointing year as injuries prevented him from any creditable showing at the international level; in fact, he failed to qualify for the 2004 Athens Olympics.

2005 was a year of change for the promising athlete as well as his coach as he turned to Glen Mills for training but perhaps only just because though he had a good start to the season with creditable performances at many minor meets. But when it came to the all-important Helsinki World Championships, Bolt was placed last in the final 200 metres run due to yet another injury. A car accident later that year in November made matters no better for Bolt and if you think that that would be the end of the story of injuries, well you are far from what really happened as he suffered yet another hamstring injury in March 2006.

However, that was the last of the injury disappointments for Usain as he was back on the tracks in two month’s time and showed a steady progress, ever since.

Having found fitness and tasted victories, Usain wanted to run the 100 metres as well. However, his coach put a pre-condition to Usain’s wishes and that was that he could do so only if he would break the Jamaican Championships 200 metres record. To state that Usain did so would be rather superfluous or else how could he be the world record holder in the 100 metres sprint, today.

Usain Bolt has said that if he was not a sprinter he
would be a fast bowler instead. He is a fan of Sachin
Tendulkar, Chris Gayle and Matthew Hayden. A
Manchester United fan, he met the team at their
training ground and offered Cristiano Ronaldo some
sprinting advice.

Fans of Usain Bolt would be praying for greater glories for this remarkably humane athlete and if their prayers are answered, knowing the talents of this man, it still can’t be a Bolt from the blue for his adversaries.