Usain Bolt became the fastest man alive, not just on earth....but also in space; how cool is that!
Every time he runs, it looked like he was flying. And the way he did it seemed so easy as if it was nothing, but before he became the track and field superhuman, he had to go through the slow process...OF BEING THE FASTEST.
This is the life story of the golden legend and the lightning bolt...USAIN.
Bolt was born on 21 August 1986 in Sherwood Content, a small town in Jamaica. Bolt spent his time playing cricket and football in the street with his brother. His parents ran a local grocery store in the rural area, and both allowed Usain to have the best time as a kid. By the age of twelve, Bolt had become the school's fastest runner over the 100-meter distance.
His childhood days were filled with memories of running around the fields of jamaica. He had been sporty ever since and always had fun playing different sports like cricket, football, and endless running!
This leads to USAIN being diagnosed as hyperactive. His mother was worried, but when she saw him having fun, she was at ease.
Once bolt said - "When I was growing up, I was always outside; that was my biggest problem. My momma said, 'No, sit down and stay inside' But you should go and have some fun."
It was all fun and games until a coach discovered Usain. That was when things started getting serious. He was naturally talented, so his coach persuaded him to become a sprinter, even though he wanted to play cricket. At the age of twelve, he became his school's fastest runner. At 15, he took his first shot on the world stage. He became the youngest world-junior gold medalist. This may sound unreal, but do you know what motivated him to be a runner? Buying a washing machine for his mother! He remembered that she hated doing laundry by hand. So he decided to earn enough money from racing.
From a sweet goal like this, he won three gold medals and broke two world records at the Beijing Olympics eighteen months later. This was the time he became the fastest man alive!
It was also the start of endless competing, not against anyone but himself.
To describe Usain as a hero in Jamaica didn't come close to capturing the fever of national admiration. You see, the track is to Jamaicans, football is to Brazilians. His country's expectations became his next motivation after he bought his mother that washing machine. So he worked even harder. Even though some injuries got in the way, it didn't ever stop him from working really, really hard.
Bolt said - "You got to learn how to lose before you can learn how to win."
He became the first man in Olympic history to win both the 100 and 200-meter races. He won three Olympic gold medals in 2012. Making him the first man in history to set three world records in Olympics. He made history again in 2016 with a gold medal in three races! And these were just a few of the many records he broke! These wins gave him a "triple-triple" name - three golds over three consecutive Olympics. a
Bolt said - "I had to remind myself, now listen to me. You have a goal for yourself, and if you don't win this year, all you have done doesn't really matter. And that's one of the things that kept me going."
But what people didn't know was that he was pressured into winning every single race. He felt the weight of his whole country depending on him. The more he broke records, the heavier it felt. He trained so hard to the point of vomiting. His father literally wouldn't be able to watch him train because it broke his heart. He had to follow a strict diet. He was famous for eating 1,000 chicken nuggets in Beijing, but he also needed to give that up. And this whole thing, Usain Bolt described as DYING. And this dying for him went on for years.
He said - "It's hard, it's like hard work. It's the day in and day out sacrifice. Day in and Day out just....dying'. I don't want to go today, but you got to go. And it's so hard, and alot of people don't know."
This discipline he put in early morning training sessions. To sacrifice social activities in exchange for more practice, to power through sore muscles and exhaustion. No room for slacking around. No room for giving up. This is what it means to be the greatest, and the truth is only a few people are ready to sacrifice everything to get there.
His story reminds me of an iceberg. Because most people only see the tip of a person's success, but no the depth of struggles. We see it in every advertisement, article, and book that tells us how to get rich, famous, and succeed fast! Yet, even the fastest man alive took years of training....... so that he could run in seconds. But what is even more inspiring about Usain is that he learned how to turn PRESSURE into MOTIVATION. And now, even after he retired, his legacy continues. It is how he endured the slow process of becoming the fastest.
There is the saying that I really like..."It takes ten years of work for an overnight success."
And I think more people need to realize that there is so much work put in when they want to be on a national level. I know many people say it's talent or luck, but not enough people realize that HARD WORK BEATS TALENT ANYTIME! And Usain Bolt is definitely one of the hardest working athletes in the history of humanity, perhaps.
So, at last, I want to remind you only one thing: HARD WORK BEATS TALENT ANYTIME!!!
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