Great entertainer Bolt vows never again
Champion sprinter ends career with note of finality, says there is no way he would return to competition
Usain Bolt took an emotional final bow on the track at the end of the World Championships in London on Sunday before declaring that, definitely and definitively, there was no way he would ever return to sprinting.
After embarking on a special lap of honour so slow that you could not believe that we were saying farewell to the world’s fastest man, Bolt was asked by reporters already missing him whether he might ever change his mind.
“No, I’ve seen too many people come back and make things worse and shame themselves. I won’t be one of those people who come back,” Bolt said firmly.
Twenty four hours earlier, the 30-year-old Jamaican’s matchless sprint career had ended painfully on the last leg of the 4 x 100 metres relay final as he crumpled to the ground in the London Stadium with a hamstring injury.
Bolt, who admitted that it had been a terrible end of a “stressful” championship after also losing his 100 metres crown, said he had felt consoled on Sunday when someone told him “Muhammad Ali lost his last fight too -- so don’t be too stressed about it”.
Already he was looking forward to an exciting future, he said, with his management camp talking to IAAF president Sebastian Coe, about what he might be able to do for the sport in an ambassadorial capacity.
He also revealed that his coach Glen Mills, the sage of Jamaican athletics, wanted him to become his coaching assistant.
“So we’ll see how that goes,” Bolt smiled about the man who has put him through a lifetime of pain. The great man even had reporters laughing when he gave them a vision of what a 50-yearold Bolt might end up doing.
“I’ve no idea. Hopefully, with three kids, married, still in track and field, trying to help the sport, watching it grow,” he said.
“I don’t know if I’d take my kids to the track, though. I won’t be one of those parents who force their kids into things they don’t want to do.”
WONDERFUL NIGHT
It was a wonderful night of celebration for athletics’ greatest entertainer with Bolt honoured one last time at the stadium where he achieved the second of his three Olympic sprint doubles.
Coe and the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, presented him with a piece of the 2012 track as a memento before he embarked on his celebration lap, slowly soaking up all the non-stop cheers from the 56,000 full house - all to a Bob Marley soundtrack.
He went over to the 200 metres and 100m start lines, knelt down and crossed himself. “I was saying goodbye to my fans but to my events also,” he said, admitting he was close to tears.
And after taking rather longer than the 9.63 seconds it took him to win the 100 metres crown here in 2012, he eventually stopped at the finish line and gave everyone his trademark lightning bolt impression.
Before he had set off on the lap, he had told the crowd he wanted to entertain and put on a show.
He did that before also getting a rare round of applause in the press room from “some of you guys who wrote bad things about me”.
Asked what he hoped his legacy would be, he paused for a moment before saying: “I’ve proved with hard work anything is possible. I personally think this is a good message to the kids. ‘Push on, be strong, be as good as you can be’ - that’s a good legacy to leave’.”
He was also adamant that he would “preach” to youngsters about avoiding the evil of performance-enhancing drugs.
“The sport hit rock bottom last year and the year before and now we’re on the way back up,” he said.
I am Lightning Bolt! I am not Flash Gordon or anybody. My name is Bolt, Lightning Bolt. After breaking Michael Johnson’s 200m record at the 2008 Olympics for the first of his three individual Olympic sprint doubles. Manners is the key thing. Say for instance when you’re growing up you’re walking down the street you’ve got to tell everybody good morning. Everybody. You can’t pass one person. Bolt on why he charmed everyone, never forgetting the strict but grounded way he was brought up by his parents, father Wellesley and mother Jennifer. People come to see you run fast, but they also come to see a show, a performance... that’s what I give them. Bolt savvy as ever and why athletics will miss him so much: not just for his jaw-dropping brilliance but also his ability to entertain. I’m now a legend, I’m also the greatest athlete to live. I am in the same category as Michael Johnson. Bolt after the 2012 Olympic 200m title to complete the individual sprint double-double. If Queen Elizabeth knighthooded me I would get the title Sir Usain Bolt. That would sound nice. Bolt on the possibility of joining Mo Farah as a knight of the Realm. Not wholly implausible as he has been athletics’ knight in shining armour for nearly a decade.