Usain Bolt

One of Bolt’s favourite childhood memories are the days he spent playing Cricket and Football with his brother Sadiki.

Bolt revealed his humanitarian side to the world when he contributed US$50,000 to the victims of the 2008 Siachen earthquake.

He is also a self-confessed football freak, who supports the famous club ‘Manchester United’ and is an ardent supporter of the footballer Ruud Van Nistelrooy.

Usain was born to Jennifer and Wellesley Bolt on 21st August 1986 in Jamaica. He was one of the three children born to the couple. His parents managed to make ends meeting by managing a shop where mostly grocery was sold.

The young boy was enrolled at an institution named ‘Waldensia Primary’ for his primary education. He was known for being a good-sprinter during his time here and even won many ‘10 metre’ running contests at this institution.

Bolt later moved to the ‘William Knibb Memorial High School’, where he started playing sports such as Cricket. While mentoring the kids who were interested in the sport, the coach felt that Usain would be a better athlete than a cricketer. He even encouraged the latter to try running.

The young lad soon participated in the 200 metres racing event in school, which he finished in a matter of just 22.04 seconds.

Soon after he was coached by a former sprinter named Pablo McNeil, who had even previously participated in Olympics.

The first major international sporting event which Bolt had participated in was the ‘IAAF World Youth Championship’, held in 2001 at the Hungarian city of Debrecen. Although he failed to emerge victorious in the 200m qualifier event, Bolt managed to finish the event in 21.73 seconds, which was his personal best at that time.

Usain then went on to participate in the ‘2002 World Junior Championships’. In this international event, held at Kingston, Jamaica, he managed to win the 200 metre event, by completing the race in just 20.61 seconds.

He then made waves in the world of sports by his extraordinary performance in the ‘2003 CARIFTA Games’ event.

During the ‘Jamaican High School Championships’, which was also held in 2003, Bolt re-wrote the previous records of the 200m and 400m running events by completing both events in durations as small as 20.25 seconds and 45.35 seconds respectively.

Usain Bolt has participated in four Olympics Games and has won 9 gold medals.

At the 2004 Athens Olympics, he was hampered by a leg injury and was eliminated in the first round of the 200 metres.

At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, he won gold medals in 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay, with the timings of 9.69 seconds, 19.30 seconds and 37.10 seconds respectively.

At the 2012 London Olympics, he repeated this feat once again. He won 100m in 9.63 seconds, 200m in 19.32 seconds and 4x100m relay in 36.84 seconds.

At the 2016 Rio Olympics, he once again won the gold medals in all the three events and achieved the "triple-triple". He won 100m in 9.81 seconds, 200m in 19.78 seconds and 4x100m relay in 37.27 seconds.