Bolt, Usain, << yoo SAYN >> (1986-…), a Jamaican athlete, ranks among the greatest sprinters in track and field history. A sprinter is a runner who competes in short races called sprints that are generally up to 200 meters in length. (One meter equals about 3 1/4 feet.) Bolt set the men’s 100-meter world record of 9.58 seconds on Aug. 16, 2009, at the World Championships for track and field in Berlin. He set a world record of 19.19 seconds in the 200 meters at the championships four days later. Bolt also helped set a world record of 36.84 seconds in the 4×100-meter men’s relay while competing on the Jamaican team on August 11 in the 2012 Summer Olympic Games.
Bolt won gold medals in the 100-meter and 200-meter races and as a member of the 4×100-meter relay team at the 2008, 2012, and 2016 Olympics. He became the first athlete to win gold medals in both sprints and the relay at three consecutive Olympic Games. However, in 2017, Bolt was forced to return one of the gold medals. Re-analysis of a drug test administered to Bolt’s 2008 Olympics relay teammate Nesta Carter revealed the presence of a banned substance. Therefore, all of the relay team members lost their medal for that event. Bolt won the 100-meter and 200-meter races at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing, China. At the 2011 World Championships at Daegu, South Korea, he was disqualified in the 100-meter race but won the 200-meter.
Usain St. Leo Bolt was born on Aug. 21, 1986, in Trelawny, in a region of northwestern Jamaica called the Cockpit Country. He began his track career in high school. By that time, he had grown to his adult height of 6 feet 5 inches (196 centimeters). This height makes Bolt unusually tall for a sprinter. Bolt won the 200 meters at the 2002 World Junior Championships. He set his first world record on May 31, 2008, in the 100 meters. Bolt retired in 2017.
