Usain Bolt, the man with eight gold Olympic medals in sprinting events, has made a return to athletics after his athletic hiatus following his performance at the 2016 Olympics that were held in Rio. Bolt is famous for his 100 meter and 200 meter dash races in the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics where he not only went back-to-back for gold, but set the World Record in each event. The Jamaican had already held the title as the fastest man to ever live entering the event, but he was also the first human to ever run 100 meters in under 9.7 seconds clocking a 9.69. This smashed his previous record of 9.72 seconds. I understand .03 seconds doesn’t seem like much, but to sprinters that is a huge personal best. Considering the length of their race, it is much harder to adjust technique and get faster than it is to do so in the longer distances.

A bit of a side note: had Bolt not slowed down to celebrate his first Olympic gold medal, it is predicted he could have ran close to 9.55 seconds, .14 seconds faster than the time he actually ran.

To further display the man’s ability, Usain Bolt ran 19.30 in the 200 meter later that week. As stated previously, this is another world record. Bolt had broken the previous record of 19.32 set at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. However, at the 2009 Berlin World Championships, the fastest man to ever live ran 19.19 smashing his own record by .11 seconds.

 

Now that there is a back story to Usain Bolt’s ability, you would have thought he would continue some type of career in track and field. He racked up a net worth of $90 million with the sport, yet chose to leave it all together and pursue one of his passions: Competitive soccer.

 

 

Bolt’s, now thirty-two, returned to athletics this past week, a return that has been highly anticipated by his fans. Playing for a club team in Australia, Bolt scored two goals to help the team win 4-0. The former track star now has already seen professional contracts pop up for him, as he may head to Malta to join Valletta football club. The now retired six time track and field world champion has not made a public response on the offer yet, though he is expected to continue his soccer career on a professional level.

Valletta is a prestigious club in Malta, and is currently the champion of their professional soccer league, Maltese Premier League.