Usain Bolt, the fastest man in history, turns 40 on Friday. The eight-time Olympic gold medallist and the holder of several world records in track and field events gave a myriad of unforgettable moments to the sporting world in his truly remarkable career.
But few people know that athletics was not the first love of the Jamaican, who retired in 2017, nine years after he stunned the world with a 9.69-second run in the 100 metres final of the 2008 Beijing Olympics — a record he battered one year later at the world championships.
Son of a grocery store owner in rural Jamaica, Bolt played both cricket and football on the streets with his friends.
While he was good at both sports, it was cricket that was close to his heart.
As a batter, he was a clean striker of the ball. But with his height, he was even better at bowling fast and dreamt of emulating the legendary West Indies fast bowlers Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh.
Bolt was also the best fast bowler of his school team, and it was during one of those cricket matches that a teacher noticed his talent for running fast, especially when running between the wickets as a batsman and chasing the ball while fielding.
With the advice of the teacher, Bolt tried his hand at athletics, and by the age of 12, he was the school’s fastest runner in the 100 metres.
It was the start of an epoch-making journey in athletics as Bolt went on to become the greatest sprinter of all time, winning eight Olympic gold and 11 World Championships gold medals in the 100 metres, 200 metres, and 4 × 100 metres relay events.
He remains the fastest man ever because his world records — 9.58 seconds in the 100 metres and 19.19 seconds in the 200 metres, both set at the 2009 World Championships — still stand firmly.
A big fan of Real Madrid and Manchester United, Bolt also played a few pre-season matches for Central Coast Mariners, an Australian football club.
Every now and then, Bolt also plays charity cricket matches and even got the wicket of Chris Gayle.
In an interview with Khaleej Times, the West Indies cricket superstar admitted that he was surprised by Bolt’s ability to bowl deadly bouncers.
“His first delivery was a sharp bouncer, and I was like, ‘what?’ You know, it was like a proper, proper short ball and I got underneath it. I was like, ‘okay, let’s have some fun’. I hit him for a few boundaries, then eventually, a big mistake, an inside edge onto the stumps, and that was one of the biggest things he has put in his book, that he got Chris Gayle out. It was like winning the Olympic gold medal,” Gayle recalled during the Khaleej Times interview in 2021.
In the same match, Bolt also hit Gayle, a part-time spinner, for a six and a four.
“It was his day. He won that battle, so I need to get him back on the track. I know I can beat him on the track, even right now. I know I can beat Usain Bolt in a 100 metres right now,” Gayle laughed.
Who knows, if Bolt had not switched from cricket to track and field in school, he might have struck that famous ‘bow and arrow pose’ (when he leans to the side, drawing one arm back while pointing the other towards the sky) on iconic cricket grounds to celebrate each wicket.
Source: Khaleej Times