Usain Bolt Biography

Fast Facts

• Excelled as a cricket bowler before finding his way into track & field
• Won the 200 meters at the World Juniors in 2002 at the age of 15, becoming the youngest-ever gold medalist in the competition
• Became the first junior (under-20) to run a sub-20-second 200 meters (19
• 93), at the 2004 CARIFTA Games in Bermuda
• Turned down scholarship offers from at least 10 U
• S
• colleges, citing the large number of Jamaican sprinters to "burn out" on the busy American college circuit
• Set his first world record in the 100 meters (9
• 72 seconds) at the Reebok Grand Prix in New York City in May 2008
• Shattered world and Olympic records in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay (with Jamaican teammates) at the 2008 Beijing Olympics
• Repeated his triple-gold-medal feat at the 2012 London Olympics
• Honored by Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding with the Order of Jamaica, as well as a major highway in Bolt's name (the same highway on which he infamously crashed his BMW in 2009)
• Started the Usain Bolt Foundation, a charity organization dedicated to the welfare of children, in 2010
• Opened a sports bar and restaurant called Tracks & Records in his native Jamaica in 2011
• With his three golds at the 2015 World Championships, Bolt became the most decorated World Championship athlete
• Won gold in the 100m and 200m at the 2016 Olympics in Rio, becoming the first man to win gold in those races three times in a row, and completed his triple-triple with a gold as part of the 4x100m relay
• In 2017, was stripped of his gold medal from the 2008 4x100m relay after teammate Nesta Carter tested positive for a banned substance