The Fastest Man Alive

by Usain Bolt

  When I went to the Reebok Grand Prix in New York at the end of May I wasn’t thinking about breaking a world record. This was business, taking on Tyson Gay over 100 meters for the first time. If the athletics world had doubts about me, this was the place to put them right.

  I was determined not to let Tyson beat me. I’d put in the hours at the gym, working on my abs and doing all the exercises to get stronger. The only worry was my start, but Tyson was not the best starter either so we were even on that one.

  There had been heavy rain beforehand, but that can be good. As long as a track is not soaking wet it is bouncier when it’s damp. I noticed I was missing a spike in my left shoe, which wasn’t unusual for me; I also had one missing in the Olympic final a few months later. I don’t know why it happens, they just go, and then the hole gets clogged up and you cannot fit a new spike in to replace the old one. It’s not a disaster to lose one, because there are seven more and they are all at the top of the running shoe, whereas if you lose a stud in a soccer cleat it has more effect. Ideally, though, you should run with all spikes in and having one less is not going to help you.

  When the gun went I made a better start than Tyson, got ahead of him, and knew from that position on he wasn’t going to pass me. I kept going, going, going and wasn’t even looking at the clock when I crossed the line. I wasn’t thinking records, just that I’d beaten Tyson Gay. This was a very bright flash of the Lightning Bolt.

  I didn’t find out I’d set the world record – of 9.72 seconds, beating Asafa’s mark by two-hundreths – until I was jogging along the back straight and it was announced over the public address system. I beat my chest and was like “yes”. Anything was possible now and the bonus was it had shut those people up who said it wasn’t a proper clock in Jamaica. The Americans could see it for themselves now, it was right in front of them. Tyson offered his congratulations, we shook hands and did an interview together. But our relationship was never the same again, and that’s down to him not me.

  You have to do the Olympic trials no matter how good you are, even if you are a world record holder. You cannot skip them unless you have a good reason, like an injury, but they are easy enough, there are rarely any surprises and the same people usually make the team. I always try to win and keep my unbeaten record up, and I was happy to beat Asafa in the 100 meters.

  We moved over to England, where my agent, Ricky Simms, who books all my meetings, is based. He would organize accommodation in Teddington, on the Thames near London, and the Racers Track Club members stay there for the big European races along with Ricky’s other clients from around the world. There are many different nationalities, and you get to meet people who ordinarily you might not have much to do with.

  Asafa beat me at an IAAF grand prix event in Stockholm before the Olympics. It was a result which created a media stir, but it was down to my bad start and didn’t give me any doubts about winning golds in Beijing. There are different starters at the meetings who all have their own ways. There are fast starters and slow starters, and you get to know them after a while and how they do it. In Stockholm the guy waits until everybody gets up on the word “set” before he fires. I was up and waiting and waiting for a good three seconds wondering what the heck was going on, and when he fired I had lost concentration and was caught off guard day-dreaming. I ran hard to get back at Asafa, who was looking over his shoulder, but for some reason I didn’t want to win, didn’t want it enough. If I’d leaned forward I would have won. I was catching Asafa and he was tightening. Coach asked me first if I was giving out Christmas presents early and then said he was happy about what happened, because it would teach me to get serious and get focused. Like he said, you have to learn how to lose and why you lost.

  I didn’t race Asafa after that until the Olympics; nor did I compete against Tyson either. Asafa had beaten me once, I’d beaten Tyson, and Tyson had beaten Asafa. Asafa and I were going to race a few days later at Crystal Palace in London, but Coach decided against it, saying, “Let’s keep them confident.”

  We were playing games, keeping our opponents guessing, but we knew I was ready for Beijing.

  I remember seeing this tall, lanky athlete at age 14 competing at the annual track and field championships in Kingston and it brought back some memories of the late Arthur Wint and Herb McKenley. I thought, “Is he to be one of the best Jamaica has ever seen?”

  As a coach with over 40 years’ experience, there is always some hope to have a talent of Usain’s ability to work with. I got that chance and it has been an interesting journey I feel the world will experience a lot more of what I think Usain can do, but we are focused on the commitment, discipline and dedication it will take to make that happen. While being conscious that he has not maximized his true potential, I think he is a fantastic athlete -once in a lifetime you see this kind of talent.

  Jamaica has had a rich tradition of producing world beaters. Usain has carried on that tradition in a time much different from when McKenley and Wint competed in the late 1940s and 50s; an era that characterized the domination of sprinting of black athletes from developing countries.

  More opportunities always used to be available for our athletes if they went to seek better training facilities in the USA and UK, but we have found a formula which has helped to prepare Usain and other elite athletes in Jamaica. Asafa Powell and then Usain stayed in Jamaica and showed there was a better way for our athletes to develop . Previously none had been prepared to take that chance, now you can see the quality coming through.

  My attitude towards coaching is not one-dimensional, it is also geared towards acquiring life skills. From that standpoint, whoever I’ve trained, I’ve tried to get them to understand the skills and values in life, so that they not only fulfil their potential as athletes but are also balanced people. My philosophy is that you can reach them so much better if you come across not just as their teacher but as their friend. Usain is just unique. From day one, he has always been a joy to handle, even in challenging times. He doesn’t always follow all instructions, but his personality is one which will not allow you to be angry with him for too long. My relationship with Usain is extremely close, like father to son. Wherever he is in the world, if I’m not there, he will call me to ask if I’m OK . If he sees me looking like I’m under pressure, he wants to know what it’s all about and how he can help to make it better.

  Words are inadequate to describe the rough times we had at the beginning, but the results today are an indication that you may find water in the middle of a desert.

  Usain came to me after a disappointing performance at the 2004 Summer Olympics. He then pulled up in the 200 meters in the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki Those two performances were to signal his arrival in the big leagues having had the pressure of being a junior star.

  It was painful for him and he’d get bad comments from people in the street There were cartoons in the paper and he faced strong criticism in the media. My job was to refocus his attention to recover I tried to convince him that if he was patient it would all work out.

  I too got criticism from the media, with them questioning my ability and calling for a new coach. I told him to be confident in himself and not to let external forces affect him. Even when I, his coach, believed that he could rise above the adversities, the onus would be on him to believe.

  We had a short to medium-term plan lasting a few years, and I knew that when we were successful it would all change. One of the plans was not to hide him from his major competitors, who at the time were Tyson Gay and Wallace Spearmon. I faced some fierce opposition to that decision, with no one seeming to understand the method to my madness. But I felt he needed to compete against the top contenders at that time, if he was to become the best.

  They thought I should hide him, but he needed to run against the people he was going to challenge. We were in the learning process, and I told Usain the technical skills that we were developing would result in ultimate success.

  While the rest
of the world condemned us, following his numerous defeats, I felt assured that my strategy was justified, as Usain did not question my method. Usain was committed to the plan and we pursued it vigorously.

  When the transformation began, the rest of the world was shocked. One European coach, who had studied and analysed Usain, was amazed at the turnaround. He was very specific in his comments regarding how Usain used to lean back when he was running, but that everything had been revolutionised. He asked how I’d done it and I told him, “It took faith, hard work and the technical knowledge I acquired over the years in sprinting."

  Usain placed a lot of faith in me and what I told him. Thank God I went down the right path and that now he’s executing most of what I’ve taught him. He has been able to perform and show his true talent and will continue to do amazing things. We are about 75 percent along the way of what we’re aiming to do, but a major part of what we still have to do is to develop a greater degree of explosive strength. His strength factor still isn’t where it ought to be.

  Usain’s preparation is a lot more technical than the typical sprinter because of his height. You have to know the right amount of work to give him and when to back off, because otherwise he could get hurt. He’s the best talent I’ve ever worked with, but it’s not a walk in the park. His current training and competition program is aimed towards him staying healthy over the rest of his career. As a result we have to plan his competition schedule meticulously for each season.

  I laugh when people say Mills can’t coach and that Usain is just a tremendous talent. He is, but if they knew how difficult and challenging it is to get him ready to run those races they would have a greater understanding of the task at hand.

  I can work out from our program how fast he might run, and it’s not a surprise when he does it. We knew from our final preparation before the Berlin World Championships that his time could improve if he executed the plan correctly. We improved his starting performance in the 100 meters, by making certain changes in his body position on the blocks. In 2009 he was leading after 20 meters, whereas previously he didn’t get into the lead until after 60 meters, and that’s testimony to the technical work being done.

  One of my philosophies is that you never stop learning. So I always listen to what others have to say, professional or otherwise. I’ve acquired a lot of knowledge over the years, and now I’m trying to pass it on to my young coaching staff, so that we can continue to produce more athletes like Usain.

  I had the ideal man to train with in my Racers Club teammate Daniel Bailey, who represents Antigua. Daniel won a bronze at the 2010 World Indoor Championships over 60 meters and is renowned as one of the best starters in the business. If you can get out of the blocks before him, you know your starts are alright. One day I got him four times and he was really annoyed about it. That told me everything was coming together nicely.

  There had been a lot of warnings about smog, which notoriously hangs over the industrial city of Beijing for weeks on end. Coach was worried about it, but when we arrived we hardly saw any. They must have closed down every factory for miles.

  So the atmosphere in the air was good, as was the atmosphere in the athletes’ village. One of the joys of athletics is to spend time messing around with your friends, and there is plenty of time to do that at an Olympics. I’m not one who would rather stay in a hotel away from it all; I like to get into the whole scene, because there’s always something going on. We play video games, cards and dominoes, talk for hours and go for walks round the village to check out the hot girls from other countries. I’ve even started learning Spanish, because if I have another language I’ll be able to speak to a lot more ladies instead of just staring at them. You can get by on Spanish with the Portuguese speakers as the languages are quite similar, which is good news when it comes to the Brazilian beauties. I wish I’d learned Spanish at school, but I didn’t get along with the teacher so I switched and did music instead. I’m not going to start singing to the girls, though.

  Unfortunately sprinters, of all the athletes, are the ones who can least afford to be distracted by the pleasures of the opposite sex while at the Olympics. As a sprinter you start the heats on the first day of the athletics program and, if you run in the 4x100 meters relay as I do, you don’t finish until near the end of the Games. You are lucky if you get two decent nights’ partying in, although we go for it once we are off the leash.

  Nobody is more important than anyone else in the athletes’ village. Everyone is equal. You cannot help looking around to spot famous faces. I remember seeing the Chinese basketball star, Yao Ming, at the 2004 Olympics and feeling like a dwarf. I’m 6ft 5ins but he is 7ft 6ins, and I had to arch my neck to look at him. In Beijing I was looking downwards at the man next door, the little Argentinian football genius, Lionel Messi.

  Before the 100m heats there had been stories that Tyson was struggling with injury. That was obviously going to increase my chances of success, but I had to concentrate on what I was doing and not take any notice. If I performed at my best, no one was going to beat me anyway.

  Waking early on day one of the athletics competition I felt no nerves, just excitement. I headed to breakfast at McDonald’s for my regular bowl of chicken nuggets. Honestly, I ate nothing else in all my time out in China except chicken nuggets. They were the only food I could properly trust which wouldn’t affect my stomach. On arriving at the training camp I’d tried a local Chinese meal, which wasn’t like the ones we eat in the West, and my body didn’t react well. So, knowing I could rely on nuggets, I made up my mind that was all I would eat. And eat them I did, 15 at a time, for breakfast, lunch and dinner, washed down with bottled water.

  It was 10 o’clock in the morning and the sun was already burning down as I lined up for my first 100m heat in the magnificent Bird’s Nest Stadium. There would be no trouble qualifying and no need to worry about false starts. I was comfortably faster than my opponents, which meant I didn’t have to get out of the blocks too quick. Once the gun went I cruised it in 10.2, while Tyson won his heat too, which made me wonder about those injury stories.

  The first two rounds of the 100 meters were on the same day, but with about a ten-hour gap in between. So, with a lot of time to kill, I returned to the village for more nuggets and a few hours’ sleep. I won my quarterfinal in 9.92, easing down and doing my usual trick of looking around all over the place, but was still the fastest qualifier. Tyson qualified ninth, and now I was thinking it might be true about the injury.

  When I’m running well it doesn’t feel like any effort, it’s smooth, almost peaceful, and when I rang NJ that night I told him I was feeling confident. My roommate Maurice Smith, the decathlete, was also keeping me relaxed. I’d asked him to room with me because we went back a good few years together and I enjoyed his company. We had a lot of fun and would never go to sleep, like kids at camp. His event didn’t start for a few days, so he was happy to stay up and chat and was forever filming things. He’s got hours of footage from our time in Beijing, and whenever I see him we love to sit and watch it all again. Coach was next door and got annoyed that we’d never go to bed. One night he came to our room and told us off like schoolboys because we were up until 2 a.m. laughing. I was so disappointed for Maurice when it went wrong for him in the rain on the first day of the decathlon. He did better on day two, but he was too far behind. He’d trained so well in the lead-up to the Games, and I was willing him to succeed because he was such a help to me.

  The semi-finals and final of the 100 meters were the day after the heats, and Tyson’s injury problem was confirmed when he finished fifth in his semi – well behind Asafa – and failed to make the final. I focused on getting my start right and won my semi in 9.85, which was six hundredths faster than Asafa in spite of easing down in the last 20 meters.

  The people of Beijing seemed to be loving me. They generated so much positive energy in my direction and their enthusiasm was infectious. I felt very comfortable, and in the two and a half hours before
the final I was aware of a lot of talk about whether I could break my own world record. You could feel it in the air.

  There was no time to go back to the village, so I just hung around talking to Coach and having a laugh. Some athletes go through every aspect of the race and analyse it in detail, not me. Coach might mention one or two things, but we don’t dwell on it.

  It was hot but I was well hydrated, having started a program a month before which made sure my fluid intake was correct at all times. There’s no danger of cramp as long as you stay hydrated and, while I have a full-time masseur who travels with me, I don’t like to have too many massages unless my legs are really tight.

  There were TVs in the warm-up area, where I watched the other events as well as re-runs of Asafa’s and my semis. I was happy with what I saw and felt sure that, as long as my start was OK, I would win my first Olympic gold medal. The 100 meters felt like child’s play, it was a bit of a hobby. The 200 meters was the real deal, being the more technical event where you have to work on the corner and, as it was twice as long, there was the possibility you could tire in the closing stages. In the 100 meters I was hardly blowing, it was so easy, but then again I’d put the training in, which is maybe why I felt so good. When it comes to competition there is a different feeling from training. The adrenalin kicks in and, if you’ve done it right, you will fly.

  I was disappointed Tyson didn’t make the final, because I wanted every rival out there. This wasn’t like the world juniors, when I was pleased the best runners were missing. Now I thrived on the competition and didn’t want anyone saying I only won because Tyson had an injury. I don’t like unfinished business with a rival, I’d rather get it done. There had been so much said about our re-match in Beijing and now it wasn’t going to happen. It shouldn’t have mattered, because if you win it goes in the record books and there’s no asterisk beside it or note saying, “Didn’t count. Main rival wasn’t in race.” A gold is a gold, but I’d still rather Tyson had made it.