100
Metres Progression - Outdoor
100
Metres
Progression - Outdoor
|
|
Season
|
Performance
|
Wind
|
Place
|
Date
|
|
2012
|
9.76
|
-0.1
|
Roma
|
31/05/2012
|
|
2011
|
9.76
|
1.3
|
Bruxelles
|
16/09/2011
|
|
2010
|
9.82
|
0.5
|
Lausanne
|
08/07/2010
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
2009
|
9.58
|
0.9
|
Berlin
|
16/08/2009
|
|
2008
|
9.69
|
0.0
|
Beijing (National Stadium)
|
16/08/2008
|
The Honourable Usain St. Leo Bolt, OJ, C.D. born 21 August
1986), is a Jamaican sprinter and a five-time World and three-time Olympic gold
medalist. He is the world record and Olympic record holder in the 100 metres,
the 200 metres and (along with his teammates) the 4×100 metres relay. He is the
reigning Olympic champion in these three events, and is one of only seven
athletes (along with Valerie Adams, Veronica Campbell-Brown, Jacques Freitag,
Yelena Isinbayeva, Jana Pittman, Dani Samuels) to win world championships at
the youth, junior, and senior level of an athletic event.
Bolt won a 200 m gold medal at the 2002 World Junior
Championships, making him the competition's youngest-ever gold medalist at the
time. In 2004, at the CARIFTA Games, he became the first junior sprinter to run
the 200 m in less than 20 seconds with a time of 19.93, breaking the previous
world junior record held by Roy Martin by two-tenths of a second. He turned
professional in 2004, and although he competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics, he
missed most of the next two seasons due to injuries. In 2007, he broke Don
Quarrie's 200 m Jamaican record with a run of 19.75 s.
His 2008 season began with his first world record
performance, a 100 m world record of 9.72 s, and culminated in world and
Olympic records in both the 100 m and 200 m events at the 2008 Beijing Summer
Olympics. He ran 9.69 s for the 100 m and 19.30 s in the 200 m, and also set a
4×100 m relay record of 37.10 s with the Jamaican team. This made him the first
man to win three sprinting events at a single Olympics since Carl Lewis in
1984, and the first man to set world records in all three at a single Olympics.
The following year he further lowered his own 100 m and 200 m world records to
9.58 s and 19.19 s respectively at the 2009 World Championships. This made him
the first man to hold both the 100 and 200 m world and Olympic titles at the
same time.
Bolt was born on 21 August 1986 in Sherwood Content, a small
town in Trelawny, Jamaica, and grew up with his parents, Wellesley and Jennifer
Bolt, his brother Sadeeki, and his sister Sherine. His parents ran the local
grocery store in the rural area, and Bolt spent his time playing cricket and
football in the street with his brother, later saying, "When I was young,
I didn’t really think about anything other than sports".
As a child, he attended Waldensia Primary and All-age
School, and it was here that he first began to show his sprinting potential,
running in the annual national primary-schools' meeting for his parish. By the
age of twelve, Bolt had become the school's fastest runner over the 100 metres
distance.
Upon his entry to William Knibb Memorial High School, Bolt
continued to focus on other sports, but his cricket coach noticed Bolt's speed
on the pitch and urged him to try track and field events. Pablo McNeil, a former Olympic sprint
athlete,[20] and Dwayne Barrett coached Bolt, encouraging him to focus his
energy on improving his athletic abilities. The school had a history of success
in athletics with past students, including sprinter Michael Green. Bolt won his
first annual high school championships medal in 2001, taking the silver medal
in the 200 metres with a time of 22.04 seconds. McNeil soon became his primary
coach, and the two enjoyed a positive partnership.
Performing for Jamaica in his first Caribbean regional
event, Bolt clocked a personal best of 48.28 s in the 400 metres in the 2001
CARIFTA Games, winning a silver medal. The 200 m also yielded a silver as Bolt
finished in 21.81 s.
He made his first appearance on the world stage at the 2001
IAAF World Youth Championships in Debrecen, Hungary. Running in the 200 m
event, he failed to qualify for the finals, but he still set a new personal best
of 21.73 s. Bolt still did not take athletics or himself too seriously,
however, and he took his mischievousness to new heights by hiding in the back
of a van when he was supposed to be preparing for the 200 m finals at the
CARIFTA Trials. He was detained by the police for his practical joke, and there
was an outcry from the local community, which blamed coach McNeil for the
incident. However, the controversy subsided, and both McNeil and Bolt went to
the CARIFTA Games, where Bolt set championship records in the 200 m and 400 m
with times of 21.12 s and 47.33 s, respectively. He continued to set records
with 20.61 s and 47.12 s finishes at the Central American and Caribbean Junior
Championships.
Former Prime Minister P. J. Patterson recognised Bolt's
talent and arranged for him to move to Kingston, along with Jermaine Gonzales,
so he could train with the Jamaica Amateur Athletic Association (JAAA) at the
University of Technology, Jamaica.
The 2002 World Junior Championships before a home crowd in
Kingston, Jamaica, gave Bolt a chance to prove his credentials on the world
stage. By the age of 15, he had grown to 1.96 metres (6 ft 5 in) tall, and he
physically stood out amongst his peers. He won the 200 m, in a time of 20.61 s,
0.03 seconds slower than his personal best of 20.58 s set in the 1st round.
Bolt's 200 m win made him the youngest world-junior gold medalist ever. The
expectation from the home crowd had made him so nervous that he had put his
shoes on the wrong feet. However, it turned out to be a revelatory experience
for Bolt as he vowed never again to let himself be affected by pre-race nerves.
As a member of the Jamaican sprint relay team, he also took two silver medals
and set national junior records in the 4×100 metres and 4×400 metres relay,
running times of 39.15 s and 3:04.06 minutes respectively.
The flow of medals continued as he won four gold medals at
the 2003 CARIFTA Games, and was awarded the Austin Sealy Trophy for the most
outstanding athlete of the games. He won another gold at the 2003 World Youth
Championships. He set a new championship record in the 200 m with a time of
20.40 s, despite a 1.1 m/s head wind. Michael Johnson, the 200 m world-record
holder, took note of Bolt's potential but worried that the young sprinter might
be over-pressured, stating, "It's all about what he does three, four, five
years down the line". Bolt had also impressed the athletics hierarchy, and
he received the IAAF Rising Star Award for 2002.
Bolt turned his main focus to the 200 m and equalled Roy
Martin's world junior record of 20.13 s at the Pan-American Junior
Championships. This performance attracted interest from the press, and his
times in the 200 m and 400 m led to him being touted as a possible successor to
Johnson. Indeed, at sixteen years old, Bolt had reached times that Johnson did
not register until he was twenty, and Bolt's 200 m time was superior to Maurice
Greene's season's best that year.
In his final Jamaican High School Championships in 2003, he
broke both the 200 m and 400 m records with times of 20.25 s and 45.30 s,
respectively. Bolt's runs were a significant improvement upon the previous
records, beating the 200 m best by more than half a second and the 400 m record
by almost a second.
Bolt was growing more popular in his homeland. Howard
Hamilton, who was given the task of Public Defender by the government, urged
the JAAA to nurture him and prevent burnout, calling Bolt "the most phenomenal
sprinter ever produced by this island". His popularity and the attractions
of the capital city were beginning to be a burden to the young sprinter. Bolt
was increasingly unfocused on his athletic career and preferred to eat fast
food, play basketball, and party in Kingston's club scene. In the absence of a
disciplined lifestyle, he became ever-more reliant on his natural ability to
beat his competitors on the track.
As the reigning 200 m champion at both the World
Youth and World Junior championships, Bolt hoped to take a clean sweep of the
world 200 m championships in the Senior World Championships in Paris. Bolt beat
all comers at the 200 m in the World Championship trials, but he was pragmatic
about his chances and noted that, even if he did not make the final, he would
consider setting a personal best a success. However, he suffered a bout of
conjunctivitis before the event, and it ruined his training schedule. Realising
he would not be in peak condition, the JAAA refused to let him participate in
the finals on the grounds that he was too young and inexperienced. Bolt was
dismayed at missing out on the opportunity, but focused on getting himself in
shape to gain a place on the Jamaican Olympic team instead. Even though he
missed the World Championships, Bolt was awarded the IAAF Rising Star Award for
the 2003 season on the strength of his junior record-equalling run.
