18th April, 2019
By Usain Bolt
Usain Bolt – The Fastest Man in the world. Never, ever do I get tired of hearing that. If you lined up a hundred people and asked them who the best basketball player in the world is, the best footballer, or the best cricketer, it is unlikely they would provide the same answer. But ask any of them, “Who is the best sprinter in the world?” and there is only one answer – Usain Bolt. Why? Because that is what it says on the clock. There can be no dispute or argument. The record books say that over the 100 metres flat race, the true measure of human speed, I’m the fastest person that ever lived, completing the distance as I did at the World Championships in Berlin in 9.58 seconds.
It is said that the population of the earth is 6.8 billion and that approximately 107 billion have lived on this planet since man came into being. It doesn’t get any cooler than knowing you are the fastest of them all.
I chose to be a sprinter, not only because I was the fastest kid in school, but also because I knew that politics couldn’t interfere. In team sports, it can be down to opinion whether you are the best. One coach might think you are good enough for his team, another might not, or the side could be picked on friendship or family ties. But in athletics you are either the fastest or you aren’t – opinion doesn’t come into it.
I chose to be a sprinter, not only because I was the fastest kid in school, but also because I knew that politics couldn’t interfere. In team sports, it can be down to opinion whether you are the best. One coach might think you are good enough for his team, another might not, or the side could be picked on friendship or family ties. But in athletics you are either the fastest or you aren’t – opinion doesn’t come into it.
We had a grass track at the front of Waldensia Primary School which is still there, exactly as it was, with a two foot dip at the end of the straight and when I first raced on it a guy called Ricardo Geddes would beat me. One day the sports coach Devere Nugent bet me a lunch that I could beat Ricardo. I like my food, so it was a big incentive. I won, enjoyed a nice meal and never lost to Ricardo again. Winning that race was my first experience of the thrill of beating your closet rival and from that day on my motto has always been ‘Once I’ve beaten you, you wont beat me again.’ There was quite a sporting rivalry between me and Ricardo and I told him he should keep going with athletics but, like most kids in Jamaica, he wanted to play football which he still does for one of the clubs on the island.
Much as I loved football and cricket, running came so easy to me. Once I got Ricardo out of the way, I was the fastest, not only in school but in the whole parish of Trelawny. And, after a few years in high school when I put my mind in training, I was the quickest junior in Jamaica, then the world.
Click to read the rest here: www.thenewsnigeria.com.ng/2016/08/usain-bolt-my-jamaican-roots-and-how-i-started/