Bolt was born to parents Wellesley and Jennifer in Trelawny Parish on the north coast of Jamaica. A rural area, known historically for its high number of sugar plantations and a large Maroon population, its more recent claim to fame is producing world-class athletes, such as Ben Johnson and Veronica Campbell-Brown. What is so special about Trelawny? Wellesley Bolt puts it down to the distinctive yellow yams of the area that make up his son’s breakfast, along with a starchy combo of dumplings and green banana.
At William Knibb Memorial High School, Bolt was identified as a naturally gifted athlete. Dwight Barnett, one of Bolt’s PE teachers, described the young Bolt’s talent as head-scratching.
“Sometimes I’d look at that stopwatch and think, ‘There’s something wrong with this watch. No kid can run that quickly,’” Barnett said.
But Bolt’s first true love was cricket, not athletics. Even now he lights up at the mention of Chris Gayle and Freddie Flintoff.
“I love the aggressive players,” he said.
When he goes back to Jamaica he plays cricket in the local parks. Pablo McNeil, Bolt’s first coach — a former Olympic sprinter — recalled the challenge of getting him on to the running track.
“The first time I saw Usain bowling I knew he was a born sprinter, he was so fast,” he said. “But he was so cricket-mad that he took a bit of persuading.”
McNeil frames Bolt’s achievements in the context of the great Jamaican athletes that came before him.
“No Jamaican sportsman has ever had as much pressure on him. Not Herb McKenley, not George Rhoden, not Arthur Wint, not Don Quarrie, no one. You have no idea how hard that is. He’s going to be the greatest sprinter this world has ever seen. In fact, he might be already,” McNeil said.
Germaine Mason, the British high jumper and silver medalist in Beijing who switched nationality from Jamaica in 2006, has been friends with Bolt since their junior days.
“I remember him at the junior world championships,” Mason said. “He had three medals clinking around his neck when anyone else was lucky just to have one. There he was walking along, joking with everybody, clink clink clink.”
Suddenly everything Bolt touched turned to gold. After the 100m in Beijing, Powell and Gay were out of the picture. Bolt became “Lightning Bolt” and everybody wanted to talk to him. Delighted and delirious, Bolt celebrated as a young man, dancing and entertaining the crowd. Jacques Rogge, the International Olympic Committee president, was not impressed and swiftly labeled Bolt’s antics as disrespectful to his competitors. But the man that Rogge and others describe is unrecognizable to those who know Bolt well.
“Usain is very humble off the track,” Mason said. “He’s not like what you see on the TV. I disagree with what Jacques Rogge said. When you win an Olympic medal that’s the greatest thing ever, you don’t just want to win and walk off the track, you want to entertain the crowd. You want to open up and express how you’re feeling. His celebrations are a very good thing for the sport.”
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