BIO OF THE FASTEST MAN-USAN BOLT
By: Smart

Usain Bolt  [ju\'seːn] (born 21 August 1986) is a track and field sprint athlete who competes internationally for Jamaica. Bolt holds the Olympic and world records for the 100 metres at 9.69 seconds, the 200 metres at 19.30 seconds and, along with his teammates, the 4x100 metres relay at 37.10 seconds, all set at the 2008 Summer Olympics. Bolt became the first man to win all three events at a single Olympics since Carl Lewis in 1984, and the first man in history to set world records in all three at a single Olympics. His name and achievements in sprinting have earned him the media nickname "Lightning Bolt"

Bolt distinguished himself with a 200 m gold medal at the 2002 World Junior Championships, making him the competition\'s youngest-ever gold medalists. At the 2004 World Junior Championships, Bolt became the first junior sprinter to run the 200 m in under 20 seconds with a time of 19.93 s, breaking Roy Martin\'s world junior record by two-tenths of a second. Bolt also set competition records at a number of other junior events.

Bolt turned professional in 2004 but missed most of his first two seasons due to injuries; he was eliminated in the first round of the 200 m heats at the 2004 Summer Olympics. In 2007, Bolt beat Don Quarrie\'s 200 m Jamaican national record with a run of 19.75 s. In May 2008, Bolt set his first 100 m world record with 9.72 s, improving upon his personal best of 9.76 s made earlier in Bolt was born in Trelawney, Jamaica, on 21 August 1986. As a child, he was successful in the annual, national primary schools\' meeting for his parish, and enjoyed playing cricket, specializing in fast bowling. Upon his entry to William Knibb Memorial High School, his cricket coach noticed Bolt\'s speed on the pitch and urged him to try track and field events. Pablo McNeil and Dwayne Barrett coached Bolt, encouraging him to focus his energy on improving his athletic abilities. The school had a history of athletic success with past students including Michael Green. Bolt won his first annual high school championships medal in 2001, taking the silver medal in the 200 metres with a time of 22.04 seconds.

Performing in his first Caribbean national event, Bolt clocked a personal best of 48.28 s in the 400 metres in the 2001 CARIFTA Games, winning a silver medal.\\ The 200 m also yielded a silver as Bolt finished in 21.81 s. He made his first appearance on the world stage at the 2001 IAAF World Youth Championships in Debrecen, Hungary. Running in the 200 m event, he failed to qualify for the finals, but he still set a new personal best of 21.73 s. In 2002, Bolt won both the 200 m and 400 m events in the High School Championships, CARIFTA Games, and Central American and Caribbean Junior Championships. He set championship records in the same two events at the 2002 CARIFTA games with 21.12 s and 47.33 s respectively. He continued to set records, with 20.61 s and 47.12 s finishes at the CAC Junior Championships

Rise to prominence

The 2002 World Junior Championships in front of a home crowd in Kingston, Jamaica, offered Bolt a chance to showcase his talent on the world stage. By the age of 15, he had grown to 1.96 metres (6 ft 5 in) tall, and he physically stood out amongst his peers. He won the 200 m, in a time of 20.61 seconds, a new personal best. As a member of the Jamaican sprint relay team, Bolt took two silver medals and set national junior records in the 4x100 metres and 4x400 metres with 39.15 s and 3:04.06 minutes, respectively. Bolt’s 200 m win made him the youngest world-junior gold medalist ever. The flow of medals continued as he won another gold at the 2003 World Youth Championships. He set a new championship record in the 200 m with 20.40 s, despite a 1.1 m/s head wind.

Bolt turned his main focus to the 200 m and equaled Roy Martin\'s world junior record of 20.13 s at the Pan-American Junior Championships. In his final Jamaican High School Championships in 2003, he finished the 200 m in 20.25 s, beating the previous record by a margin of 0.57 s. In the 400 m, he crossed the line in 45.30 s to beat the old record of 46.17 s. As the reigning 200 m champion at both the World Youth and World Junior championships, Bolt hoped to take a clean sweep of the world 200 m championships in the Senior World Championships in Paris. However, he was not able to compete because of a bout of conjunctivitis before the event. This ruined his training schedule, causing him to withdraw the month.