On his 31st birthday: Why Usain Bolt is called a “legend”

CAIRO – 21 August 2017: Usain Bolt celebrates his 31st birthday on 21st August. After his retirement, here are 10 reasons why he deserves the title of “legend” and how he has managed to achieve these remarkable achievements.

1. The fastest sprinter in history

The Jamaican sprinter broke the 100 meters record 3 times. He broke the world record for the first time nine years ago.

Bolt broke Asafa Powell’s record of 9.74 seconds (s) when he covered the race in 9.72s in May 2008, before breaking his own record again and completing the race in 9.69s at the Beijing Olympics later that year.

At the 2009 World Athletics Championships in Berlin, the Jamaican sprinter covered the race in 9.58s.

2. Runs faster than most athletes

The International Athletics Federation (IAAF) announced a list of races which were covered in less than 10s before the London World Championship. The list shows that very few athletes are close to Bolt's records in such races.

Since 1968, 125 runners have managed to cover the race in less than 10s.
But only Bolt, Yohan Blake, Asafa Powell, Justin Gatlin and Tyson Gay covered the race in less than 9.78s.

3. Of course, it is not limited to 100-meter races.

Bolt also achieved impressive results in the 200m race, and is the only runner who has a record in the 100m and 200m together since the IAAF's adoption of the Automated System for the Arbitration of the Olympic Games in 1977.

At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Bolt broke Michael Johnson’s record in the 200m race which was 19.32s, and had stood for 12 years. Bolt covered the race in 19.30 s, before breaking the record again with 19.19s a year later in Berlin.

4. His performance is unbelievably stable.

With the exception of the 2017 World Athletics Championships, Bolt has won all the races he has played at the Olympics and World Championships since 2008.
The 2016 Rio Olympics saw Bolt win three gold medals in the 100m, 200m and 400m relay, making him “immortal,” he said.

But he was stripped of the gold medal he won in the 400-meter relay at the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008 after his colleague, Nesta Carter, failed to pass the doping test. Carter appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sports.

Bolt's brilliant tour of the world championships has been hampered with a bronze medal in London in 2017 and a false start in the 100m race in South Korea in 2011, which took him out of the race.

5. Who beats Bolt?

Since 2008 till now, only one sprinter was able to beat him in the 200m race. Blake, at the 2012 National Championship in Jamaica, outperformed him.

Blake also won the 100m race in the same tournament, in only one of five times.
The list of players who beat Bolt in the 100-meter race includes Gatlin, Christian Coleman, Powell and Gay.

6. It's faster than you imagine

Bolt covered the fastest 10m in the 100m race in 0.81s, equivalent to 27.66 miles per hour (44.51 kilometers per hour), almost the same speed as a horse.

But Bolt also covered 100m in less than 9.58 seconds, with the second half of the 200m (19.19 seconds) covered in just 9.26 seconds. He also covered 100 meters in less than nine seconds, at a record of 8.65s in the 400 meters relay, in 2015.

Thus, it is possible to say that the Jamaican sprinter’s performance has suffered from aging and injuries. By the time he reached his 31st year, his speed had begun to decline. In 2016, the 100m race was covered in 9.81s and the 200m race in 19.78 seconds, slow records compared to his own standards. But he still won medals.

7. How does he do it?

There is no simple answer to this question, but a study published in the Journal of Human Kinetics, found that his body structure (Bolt is 195 cm tall) is one of the factors that gives him a great advantage over the rest of his competitors.

Height is often seen as a negative point at the start of the race, with the body bending forward, but researchers say that when sprinters arrive to the middle of the race, Bolt’s height makes his steps wider and helps him maintain his speed longer.

8. He covers 2.47m in one step, 20cm more than the average of the other sprinters

This leads, of course, to Bolt's superiority over his rivals, and when he is at full speed, his steps widen further.

The Jamaican sprinter covered the 100m distance that broke the record in 41 steps, while the other sprinters covered the same distance in about 45 steps.

9. What about the slow start of the taller sprinters? Bolt usually gets over it.

Bolt is slower than the other runners at the start of the race. If we look at the response time at the start of the 100m races at the Olympics and world championships (except for the wrong start in South Korea in 2011), we find that Bolt’s is 0.158 seconds, compared to other sprinters’ 0.149 seconds.

But, according to Michael Johnson, Bolt in recent races has been able to enjoy the same speed as other sprinters. “You'll see that within the first 30m, Bolt is the same speed as the shorter sprinters, we rarely see that,” Johnson told the Olympic channel.

In the race that broke the world record, Bolt was the fastest in all stages of the race, and was at the forefront of the race already in the first 20 meters, and remained the fastest during the rest of the race.

But at the 2017 World Athletics Championships in London, the response time at the start of the race was 0.183s, slower than usual, and slower than the response time for other sprinters by 0.031s.

10. Bolt has always been more than just a sprinter

Despite some criticism of him for his 'show' and an attempt to attract public attention before crossing the finish line, Bolt is popular and one of the most watched athletes on social media, with 19 million followers on Facebook, 7.1 million followers on Instagram and 4.75 million followers on Twitter.

Bolt's annual income amounted to $34.2 million in 2016/2017, according to Forbes magazine, which ranked him 88th in the list of the top 100 highest popular figures income.

Bolt donates to charities, and supports his high school in Jamaica.
The Jamaican sprinter says he wants “to rest a little and enjoy his time as much as possible.”

There is no doubt that the world of sports will miss Bolt. “What we will miss is his character, we need athletes with a distinctive personality,” IAAF President Lord Coe told the BBC.