Whenever Usain Bolt watches athletics competitions he feels the urge to return to the sport he dominated for a decade, but that longing quickly dissipates once he reminds himself of “all the training” he would have to undergo to compete at the highest level.
The eight-time Olympic champion, speaking to Tidesports source, has confessed that around a year and a half ago he discussed the possibility of a comeback with his coach.
“We sat down and actually spoke a little bit about coming back, maybe for the Olympics. But my coach was like he knows I’m not going to be serious. He said ‘you could talk about it but I know you are not going to be that serious because you hate training so I know you are not going to do it’,” the Jamaican recalled.
Bolt retired from track and field three years ago but has kept his place as the fastest man in history with his 100m world record of 9.58 seconds still seemingly beyond reach.
Although he believes the 100m and 200m events are “in good hands” with the likes of Noah Lyles doing “pretty well”, Bolt does not expect his 11-year-old records including the 19.19 seconds over 200m, to fall anytime soon.
“I think no one will get to my records yet,” he said. “I don’t think the person is there yet to break my records.
“The level that took me to my records was a long way and a lot of hard work. I think my physical attributes, the fact that I’m tall, really helped. It’s going to take a while before somebody actually gets there.”
Following his retirement from athletics in 2017, Bolt had a brief stint in football and trained with clubs in Europe and Africa before giving up on his football dream in Australia. In hindsight, he thinks he would have done “much better” if he had stayed in Europe.