The Greatest Showman

Usain Bolt was a superstar. An all time great who transcended his sport. We take a look back on his remarkable career, and relive why Bolt being on the start line made athletics box office viewing

27th July 2023 and Paris 2024 are unveiling their Olympic torch to mark one year to go until the Games begin.

Yet despite this being a day for looking to the future, it is an athlete 6 years retired who has been chosen to be the face of the occasion. 

The fact Usain Bolt is the most recognisable face in Olympic sport in 2023 says something of the current landscape, but tells us even more about the lasting impact of a man who is one of very few genuine living legends. He sits comfortably at the top table of all time sporting icons as the best to ever do it. A once in a lifetime athlete who combined consistently breathtaking performances with showmanship and charisma to match. 

This article looks back on his dazzling career at major championships between 2008 and 2017, and remembers the drama and excitement that made a Usain Bolt performance, must see TV.

2008 Olympics, Beijing - The Shock of the Lightning

It’s hard to conceive now, given the distances by which he won, and the titles he went on to achieve, but going into the 2008 Beijing Olympics Bolt was not yet a world superstar, or even the dominant favourite for victory. 

He was however the current World Record holder and was already starting to justify the enormous hype that had surrounded him ever since winning a Junior Under 20 title at the age of 15. But as he stood on the start line for the Olympic 100m final, there was genuine uncertainty as to whether he would be victorious.

The following 9.69 seconds changed his life, and the sport as we knew it forever. 

Metres clear, arms outstretched, joy and disbelief in his eyes whilst streaking away from fastest men in the world will forever be an iconic moment in Olympic history.  

His status as the world’s newest sporting superstar was cemented further in Beijing with victories in both the 200m and the 4 x 100m Relay, the 200m giving him another historic World Record, surpassing the time set by the legendary U.S athlete Michael Johnson.

As Bolt crossed those finish lines in Beijing, the starting gun sounded on a near decade long journey into global superstardom.

2009 World Championships, Berlin - Records for the Ages

Beijing had catapulted Bolt into the global limelight, and by the following year’s World Championships in Berlin, everything had changed.

The world watched, expectant of further superhuman performances. Somehow, Bolt managed to exceed even the greatest of expectations bestowed upon him by fans and pundits, taking a staggering 0.11 seconds off his already stunning 100m World Record. 

You simply do not take 0.11 seconds off a sprit World Record, it does not happen. Except it did, twice, in 4 days, because Bolt followed up this scarcely believable performance by running 19.19 in the 200m, extending his own World Record by that exact same margin. Performances like these have not been seen before or since. His times of 9.58 and 19.19 respectively sit within the pantheon of great achievements across any sport.

These World Records have already withstood 3 Olympic Games and 6 World Championships, with the only athlete ever coming remotely close to them being Bolt himself. The times he set in Berlin were so audacious that when we look back now we can see that purely from the perspective of his times, Bolt peaked 1 year after he had burst onto the global scene.

But in terms of winning titles and entertaining the world, he was only just getting started.

2011 World Championships, Seoul - Beaten by the ‘B’ of the Bang

It would be remiss not to mention the one blot on Bolt’s copy book, without which, every major 100m title from 2008 to 2016 would have had Bolt’s name against it. 

The World Championships in 2011 saw him inexplicably false start in the final. Immediate disqualification followed to the horror of fans, TV executives, and script writers alike. Given the profile of Bolt and his importance to World Athletics by this point, had he stayed calm and protested his innocence, it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that the officials would have found a convenient reason to allow him back onto the start blocks, any reason not to send the cash cow out to pasture.

Bolt ensured they weren’t presented with this moral dilemma as immediately after rising early from the blocks, he ripped his vest off in frustration and marched down the track, anguish etched across his face. Although not quite on par with the shock that greeted Ben Johnson’s doping test results in the same city 23 years previous, this result still sent shockwaves through the sport as it turned out even its legends are fallible. 

2012 Olympics, London - Games Maker 

If the previous years had been about winning medals and setting records, then London 2012 was very much about a celebration of all things Bolt.

He was at the peak of his powers, performing on the biggest stage, in front of an adoring crowd and duly delivering more memorable performances. 9.63 in the 100m, 19.32 in the 200m and a World Record in the Relay. 3 Gold Medals, 3 back to back Olympic titles. Never before had anyone made the legendary look so routine. 

As memorable as his on track performances, London 2012 will be remembered as a time when Bolt lit up the Olympic Stadium with his aura and charisma. Whether he was playing to the cameras, fist pumping volunteers, or dancing with mascots, Bolt had the London crowd in the palm of his hand. If Jessica Ennis was the Queen of London 2012, then Bolt was the King, with a little bit of court jester thrown in for good measure. 

2013 World Championships, Moscow - Picture Perfect

 The ability to make the super human look ordinary continued into the following year’s World Championships in Moscow.

Another 3 Gold medals, taking his tally of World Championship Golds to 8 in just 5 years. But there was little fanfare, because this was Usain Bolt, it was just what he does.

Despite the medal success, the lasting memory of Bolt at these Championships would be the image taken as he crossed the finish line in the 100m final on a dark stormy night in the Russian capital. A bolt of lightning piercing the clouds above the Luzhniki Stadium and presenting an image so perfect for the man and the moment that it couldn’t have been better encapsulated had you requested it from an AI image generator. 

2015 World Championships, Beijing - Cometh the Hour

Every hero needs a villain, and Usain Bolt needed Justin Gatlin. 

Given he was so dominant against his competition, it was fortuitous that the sprinter who was routinely closest to Bolt in both times and performances was Gatlin, a twice convicted drugs cheat who was easy for fans to route against.

As Bolt headed towards the 2015 World Championships, a genuine rivalry was starting to emerge. A dip in form from Bolt, combined with a late career surge from Gatlin ensured that as Bolt returned to Beijing, the scene of his emergence on the world stage, there was legitimate uncertainty as to whether he would retain his titles. 

Gatlin, running quicker and more consistently than ever at the age of 33 delivered a performance of 9.77 seconds in the 100m Semi Final. In stark contrast, Bolt stumbled out of the start blocks, and came through in a time of 9.96. Going into the final, Justin Gatlin was, unthinkably, the clear favourite for the Gold. 

It was to be the poster boy vs the medicine man, and it felt as though the very future of athletics was on the line. More fool us for doubting. 

Bolt somehow came through to claim a famous victory by just one hundredth of a second.  Gatlin’s technique failing him in the final 20 metres under the combined weight of his own expectations, and Bolt’s own aura. This may not have been Bolt’s fastest time or most prestigious title, but it may well have been the sweetest of his career victories. 

On crossing the finish line, BBC commentator Steve Cram gave us some iconic sporting commentary when he exclaimed, “he’s saved his title, he’s saved his reputation, he may have even saved his sport”, and given the fragile reputation athletics has in the eyes of casual fans, although extraordinary, at that moment Cram’s comments did not feel hyperbolic. 

2016 Olympics, Rio de Janeiro - The Triple Triple

By the time the Rio Olympics of 2016 came around one year later, Bolt was in the twilight of his career whilst still very much the best in the business.

Comparable to the way in which Lionel Messi was the player of the tournament at last year’s FIFA World Cup despite being some way past his peak years, Bolt was still the dominant sprinter in the world, despite never being in danger of hitting the times of 7 and 8 years previous. As an 11 time World Champion with 6 Olympic Golds, Bolt’s legacy was already secured heading into Rio, but a further gold rush would see his name etched even deeper into sporting immortality. 

Bolt duly delivered 3 more Golds, the victory in the 100m particularly satisfying for the dual reason that it was Gatlin who he beat into Silver once again, but more importantly it meant Bolt eclipsed the achievements of the great Carl Lewis, the only other man to successfully retain the Olympic 100m title. Bot now had 3 consecutive Olympic 100m titles, an achievement which meant his reign as Olympic champion in the event would eventually be unbroken for an astonishing 13 years. 

If the Olympics is where legends are made, then Bolt had made a compelling case that not all legends are created equal.

2017 World Championships, London - An Unsatisfactory Ending

Having achieved everything possible in the sport and more, Bolt announced that the 2017 World Championships in London would be his final competition. But rather than being a glorious send off into the sunset, London went on to be a championships to forget.

First, he was beaten into third place by that man Gatlin in the 100m final, and then having sat out the 200m, he pulled up injured in the anchor leg of Jamaica’s 4 x 100m Relay.

Bolt’s final act on an athletics track was to limp off in agony, and for a man who had given so much to so many, it was a sad way to bow out. Proof if ever it were needed, that sport doesn’t always deliver fairytale endings, not even to those who have written the most magical stories.

The Finish Line

Of course that night in London will not be our lasting memory.

Bolt ended his career with a total of 8 Olympic titles, his Relay Gold from 2008 having been retrospectively wiped out in 2017 following a positive doping result by teammate Nesta Carter. There were also 11 World Championship titles, and 3 World Records which still stand today.

Even more important for the sport was that he provided a near decade of scintillating performances and on track showmanship that meant when Bolt was on the start list, athletics was the hottest ticket in town. Those lucky enough to be there in person knew they were witnessing an icon, and millions tuned in around the world just to marvel at an athlete who was simply, different. 

As is the way with these things, the further we get from the event, the more we can reflect and appreciate just how special those performances were for the sport of athletics during those golden years. There will be outstanding performances from charismatic athletes such as Noah Lyles, Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce and Karsten Warholm over the course of the next 9 days in Budapest, but nothing will come close to Bolt. 

The sport of athletics cannot and should not attempt to find the next Usain Bolt, because it is an impossible task. Lightning never strikes twice in the same place.