Usain Bolt: The Lightning Spark That Redefined Speed"

The full name of this athlete is Usain St. Leo Bolt, and for his high running speed he is also called Lightning. He was born on August 21, 1986 in Jamaica, surrounded by the warm Caribbean Sea. Usain Bolt was born in Sherwood Content, a small town in Jamaica.

At the time, his parents, Wellesley Bolt and Jennifer Bolt, ran a tiny department store in the city – the family was very poor. Usain grew up hand in hand with his brother Sadiki Bolt and sister Shereen Bolt, and he later described his childhood as tough.

Bolt currently holds the world record in the 100m and 200m relays. He once not only won three races in a row, but also became the first man to set world records in all three events at a single Olympics.

How it all began

Sport was the only outlet for little Usain, because his town was quite far from civilization. His favorite games were cricket and football in the company of his brother, sister and other peers. At school, Usain received poor grades, but from birth he was filled with a desire for active games. This is what pushed him to start a sports career.

The beginning of a sports career

His first step in education was primary school in Valdencia. The teachers were delighted to see his incredible running skills. However, Usain was not the fastest runner among his peers at first, but by the age of 12 he finally broke the school record in the 100 meters. Realizing that he liked sprinting, Usain was confused because his heart was also in his beloved cricket and football.


One day, he was playing cricket on the school court, and his coach came up to him. He noticed that Usain was a great runner and offered him a new training method. This is how Usain Bolt's professional sports career began. A little later, he met Pablo McNeil, who became his first "adult" coach.

First competitions and medals

In 2001, at the age of 15, Bolt went to the Caribbean regional competition as a Jamaican candidate. There, he won the 400 and 200 meter races and received a silver medal. In 2002, he received three medals, including a gold one - this happened at the World Junior Championships.

However, Usain soon hit a rough patch when he suffered a knee injury that caused him a lot of trouble in 2004. As a result, he failed to win any medals at the next Olympics. However, Bolt has always been a persistent and resilient person, and these qualities allowed him to prepare for the next competitions with strong self-confidence.

Already in 2008, he became the owner of new gold medals, winning three races in a row - 100, 200 and 400 meters. It was at this competition that he became a world record holder - no one had ever taken three gold medals at once.

Usain Bolt's Speed Phenomenon

Usain Bolt remains the fastest man alive even today, after his sprinting career ended. And yet many people marvel at the phenomenon of his incredible speed. Scientists have observed the reactions in Bolt's body using special sensors and have come to a simple answer. The fact is that at the beginning of a race, his body has an extremely low reaction to stress, but thanks to this feature, Bolt manages to accelerate faster than other athletes, literally in a matter of seconds - this explains his unusually high speed.

Many scientists are sure that Usain will be able to become even faster if he trains regularly in the future. In their opinion, his physique is also unique. It is ideal for fast acceleration, and his body composition has such a successful balance that Usain was born for sprint distances.

Victory in overcoming oneself

Fun fact: the fastest man on earth has scoliosis! Bolt was born with this condition - his spine is curved to the right, which is why one of his legs is a centimeter shorter than the other. According to official information, Usain trained his walking and running gait for a long time and hard so that the scoliosis would not put a detrimental strain on his body. On December 12, 2011, the athlete gave an interview to ESPN The Magazine, in which he said the following:

“Scoliosis didn’t bother me when I was young. But with age, after twenty years, it made itself known — with unpleasant sensations in my legs and back. But I try to train a lot and don’t let my body relax, and that’s why nothing hurts. So as long as I continue to do sports, scoliosis doesn’t scare me! Of course, at the beginning of my career it scared both me and my coach — we knew little about this disease back then. And then things started to go uphill.”

Usain Bolt is a multiple gold medalist of international Olympic Games. This once again proves that even a person with scoliosis can fulfill his dream and become a successful athlete.

Bolt can teach each of us a lot, because he became a famous athlete only thanks to hard work and continuous training for many years. Usain Bolt always saw a clear goal in front of him and went towards it with a clear mind and a burning heart. Every person who wants to become successful in any business should learn from Usain determination and hard work.