Words by Ian Thorley, Photography by Danny Kasirye, Creative direction by Tim Holloway, Styling by Chris Amfo
“It’s a lifetime of training for just ten seconds,” Jesse Owens, the legendary Olympian, said when questioned about the life of a sprinter. Following in his footsteps, eighty years later, was perhaps the ultimate track and field Olympian of all time, and the greatest 100m sprinter of all time, Usain Bolt.
His stats are off the charts and will likely never be beaten. He’s the holder of eight Olympic medals, eleven world championship gold medals, as well as the world records in the 100m, 200m and the 4x100m relay.
In the lead up to the Paris Olympics, Something About Rocks meets the fastest man the world has ever known for our cover story in Manchester to discuss his Olympic records, his heroes and what’s next for the Jamaican star now he’s retired.
Meeting Usain Bolt for the first time, I have a feeling of trepidation, not only because he’s one of the greatest sports stars of our generation, but also because of his physical presence. He towers over me, filling the room with his immense size and stature. Standing in bare feet, Usain Bolt is a huge man at 195cm and weighing 94 kilos, his body flexing with taut and defined muscle definition.
Today, he’s dressed in his trademark black Puma tracksuit and trainers. He also wears two diamond necklaces and a Hublot watch. He’s not particularly talkative, and seems a little withdrawn upon his arrival to set – where is the trademark broad cheek-to-cheek smile and the lightning bolt pose that I was hoping for?
To break the atmosphere, we show him the rails of clothing that he’ll be wearing for the photoshoot, beautiful sweaters and trousers in luxury fabrics from French maisons like Hermès, Louis Vuitton and Dior, as well as more athletic clothes from his sponsor Puma and denim from Italian brand Replay.
His face lights up, though, as we present the watches and jewellery. We’ve been sent the very latest Hublot novelties fresh from the recent Watches & Wonders show in Geneva, including a Square Bang Unico King Gold Rainbow, as well as a Big Bang Unico in orange ceramic.
Bolt has a longstanding relationship with the Swiss watchmaker. Explaining his relationship with his sponsors, he notes: “One thing we always try to do is to do our homework on every brand, to make sure it’s not just all about money. To make sure they’re aligned with how I want my image to be perceived. So, it’s something that we worked on with Hublot and we understand that they were an upcoming brand and they were doing big things.”
He tells me that he hopes that the relationship will continue for a number of years, far into his retirement. “My favourite watch is the first one they gave me,” he says, enthused to talk about their twelve or thirteen year partnership. “A Big Bang with a strap made from my pair of spikes from Beijing in 2008.” He’s also excited about the jewellery and nods approvingly at a Louis Vuitton gold chain necklace.
The day grows increasingly positive: Bolt becomes much more animated and really starts to enjoy himself. He laughs and dances to the beat of Drake and Skepta that our photographer, Danny Kasirye, has booming on set.
We’ve also moved the conversation onto his favourite topic, football and Manchester United. “Last night had been a late night,” explained his agent Ricky Simms, a genial Ulsterman with more than a passing resemblance to Rory McIlroy. They’d been to the Laureus World Sports Awards in Madrid (Bolt is a three-time winner) hanging out with Englishman Jude Bellingham and had only touched down on the tarmac in Manchester at 1.30am.
Bolt himself wears three necklaces, two diamond tennis necklaces and a gold St Christopher medal. Despite the visible bling on display he describes himself as “a really simple person.” The St Christopher was a gift from “one of his ladies” from the church. “She always looks over me and she always prays for me,” he explains. Bolt is a very religious man. His father is a Seventh-day Adventist, and he’s a little bit superstitious. He also hangs a St Christopher in his car for protection. This is possibly the result of some mental scarring: he was in a near fatal car crash in 2009. Bolt was driving and the car flipped: miraculously, he walked away unscathed, with only minimal injuries to his feet.
He’s happy to discuss Manchester United and their flaws this season, but I’m keen to discover the secret of his success. He knew he always had talent from a young age and thought this was enough to get him through, but it was his coach, Glenn Mills, who taught him that talent will only get you so far. “I wasn’t focused,” he says. “I was always talented as a young kid, I didn’t need to do much coming through the ranks.” This raw talent took him to the Junior World Championships, where at 17 years of age in the Kingston national stadium, he was the first ever teenager to run below 20 seconds at 19.93 seconds in the 200m.
A realisation soon dawned, however, that his lack of dedication to training was not enough. “My goal when I was growing up was to win the 200m Olympic gold medal,” he says. At the Athens Olympics in 2004, he didn’t even make it past the heats, despite being touted for success, tearing his hamstrings in the process. Looking back and having basked in phenomenal success during his long career, he’s philosophical about this lack of early success: “I think everything happened for a reason, me starting late,” he says. “The thing I would probably tell my younger self is to get serious quicker.”
He was born and brought up in Sherwood in rural Jamaica, on a remote part of the West Indian island, and his childhood consisted of tearing around the rainforest and playing cricket. In his biography Faster Than Lightning, a recurring theme is his fundamental laziness, at complete odds with the phenomena that we associate today with Usain Bolt. He describes how in some instances this actually helped him develop and make him stronger. One of his chores was to carry 48 buckets of water from the river to fill up the cistern for the house (there was no running water). However, he quickly realised that if he carried two buckets at a time he could finish the task in half the time. This dedication to laziness helped develop and strengthen his legs, arms and back muscles.
As a child, he had phenomenal natural running speed, but cricket was his first love, he envisaged this speed would only help him develop his bowling prowess. The coaches at school noticed an incredible talent for running and particularly in the 200m, as he was considered too big for the 100m. “Track and field are to Jamaicans what football is to Brazilians,” he says. His heroes growing up were the longer distance runners “Michael Johnson, Don Quarrie and Herbert McKenney, that was the three that I looked up to,” not the sprinters Carl Lewis and Linford Christie. It was not until 2007 that he even started running the 100m that he became most famous for, as he was considered by his coach too big to get up from the blocks to be successful. But his dream “was to be one of the best, not just in track and field, but be one of the best sports stars overall.”
I wanted to know what was his favourite memory competing. Was it London, Beijing or Rio? “Beijing was my favourite time,” he says, “because, the four by one (relay) was my favourite race. Because it was just a joy, camaraderie and ener ̈ that we had as a team, and it was the first (time) I’ve ever really competed together as a team.”Does he miss the competition? “I do miss it, the competition at the time, but I look back and it’s all happiness,” he explains. He does note that athletics has changed since he left the sport. “One thing I’ve learned by watching these younger generations, a lot of them can’t run rounds.”
Now that he’s retired, he puts his energies into his own children noting: “I waited until the end of my career to really have kids, because I wanted to try to be there as much as possible.” He works with his sponsors and tries to involve them in the Usain Bolt Foundation, which is devoted to improving children’s lives, providing better education and help with sports. Epson provided 150 printers for schools in Jamaica during the pandemic. Such is his dedication to the Usain Bolt Foundation that he will only work with sponsors who will actively help his foundation and “not just for the money”.
As an ambassador to the Olympics what are his plans for the summer games? “I’m excited to see the girls, Sha’Carri [Richardson] and Shelly-Ann [Fraser-Pryce] and all these guys, this is their last showdown for the Olympics and it’s gonna be a big deal. And the swimming too. And the basketball finals because I saw that lineup for the US team, and I’m excited to watch these guys play.” Surely not, I ask? They’ll just blitz it won’t they? “That’s what they always say,” he replies, laughing.“Until the one year they lost! These guys want to come to play so they can actually win the Olympics.”
Grooming: Laura Gibb; Production manager: Malcolm Mafara; Photography assistant: Jem Rigby; Styling assistant: Agostinho Sousa Junior; With special thanks to Monday Artists; Shot at the Kimpton Clocktower Hotel, owned by IHG Hotels & Resorts
Like this? Discover our cover story with actor Amelia Gething
