‘Never again’ Bolt bids emotional London farewell
Print Edition
Usain Bolt took an emotional final bow on the track at the end of the world championships in London on Sunday before declaring that, definitely and definitively, there was no way he would ever return to sprinting.
After embarking on a special lap of honor so slow that you could not believe that we were saying farewell to the world’s fastest man, Bolt was asked by reporters whether he might ever change his mind.
“No, I’ve seen too many people come back and make things worse and shame themselves. I won’t be one of those people who come back,” Bolt said firmly.
Twenty-four hours earlier, the 30-year-old Jamaican’s matchless sprint career had ended painfully on the last leg of the 4x100 relay final as he crumpled to the ground at London Stadium with a hamstring injury.
Bolt, who admitted that it had been a terrible end of a “stressful” championship for him after also losing his 100 meters crown, said he had felt consoled on Sunday when someone told him “Muhammad Ali lost his last fight too — so don’t be too stressed about it”.
Already he was looking forward to an exciting future, he said, with his management camp talking to IAAF President Sebastian Coe, about what he might be able to do for the sport in an ambassadorial capacity.
He also revealed that his coach Glen Mills, the sage of Jamaican athletics, wanted him to become his coaching assistant. “So we’ll see how that goes,” Bolt smiled about the man who has put him through a lifetime of pain.
And the great man even had reporters laughing when he gave them a vision of what a 50-year-old Bolt might end up doing.
“I’ve no idea. Hopefully, with three kids, married, still in track and field, trying to help the sport, watching it grow,” he said. “I don’t know if I’d take my kids to the track, though. I won’t be one of those parents who force their kids into things they don’t want to do.”
It was a wonderful night of celebration for athletics’ greatest entertainer with Bolt honored one last time at the stadium where he achieved the second of his three Olympic sprint doubles.
Coe and the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, presented him with a piece of the 2012 track as a memento before he embarked on his celebration lap, slowly soaking up all the non-stop cheers from the 56,000 full house — all to a Bob Marley soundtrack.
He went over to the 200 meters and 100 meters start lines, knelt down and crossed himself. “I was saying goodbye to my fans but to my events also,” he said, admitting he was close to tears.
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