Usain Bolt's Olympic Gold Rush

He’s already the fastest man in the world. But at the Rio Olympics, Usain Bolt is gunning for an unprecedented triple-gold three-peat that could cement his status as the greatest sprinter to ever live

- Tim Struby

As a kid growing up in the tiny Jamaican village of Sherwood Content, which offers little in the way of traffic lights or reliable running water, it was the game of cricket, not track, that became Usain Bolt’s first love. Early in the morning he’d watch the sport live on TV with his father, huddled around a tiny set in his bedroom, then spend hours on the cricket pitch after school. So when Bolt’s high school cricket coach broke the news to him early on that his preternatural speed might be better suited for the track, it took some convincing, and long talks with his father, for Bolt to put aside his dreams of cricket glory and give running a shot.

He was unusually tall for a sprinter eventually landing at 6'5" and it meant he wasn’t able to generate the short, quick strides needed for a speedy start. But once Bolt cleared the blocks, his rare combination of stride length and leg strength proved to be a secret weapon. Where other sprinters might need 44 steps to complete the 100 meters, Bolt required just 41, making the distance, in effect, shorter for him. With the help of his high school track coach, Pablo McNeil, who also happened to be a former Jamaican Olympic sprinter, the tall kid from Sherwood Content soon began to stand out on the local circuit.

By the time he got to the 2001 Carifta Games, an all-Caribbean track-and-field competition that’s historically served as a breeding ground for Olympic hopefuls, the rest of the world started taking notice, too. Before the race, Bolt says, he was nervous as hell. “It was my first time representing my country.” But when it was over, the then 14-year-old came away with a pair of silver medals and, perhaps more important, the confidence that he could one day run faster than any other human in history.