Last week, a group of extremely lucky journalists were flown by PUMA to Kingston, Jamaica, to meet one of the greatest athletes of all time – perhaps the greatest. The fastest man in history. A man whose name now adorns every record in the track and field pantheon, and a name that needs no introduction.
Usain Bolt.
As brilliant as the Jamaican legend is, he is just as humble. He had 15 journalists from all over the world waiting for him in the sweltering heat on the track at the University of the West Indies in the capital, Kingston, where many of us had landed only a day earlier. But Bolt sat through the hot sun and a series of film and broadcast television interviews, each one more casual than the next.
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And then we were set for the man to launch the revolutionary new shoes he’ll be wearing come Rio 2016. The PUMA discs, which were used by Olympic silver medalist Colin Jackson in his second world championship record-setting bid, will be used by Bolt, Powell and their Jamaican teammates in Brazil. The laceless shoes – both foam topped and spiked, were redesigned and reimagined ahead of the Olympic bid, and even used by the young athletes running in that day’s iconic Champs – the junior national championships.
Bolt’s interviews began innocuously enough – and quickly descended into ludicrous, but fun territory. An American television journalist challenged Bolt to a radio-controlled car racing game – the journalist playing Nintendo character Mario and his speedy competitor one of the series' leading characters, anthropomorphic dinosaur Yoshi.
And Bolt proved he was not just the fastest man on two legs, but with a remote control, too. With Yoshi beating Mario – and quite thoroughly, the American journalist accepted a meek defeat. Ever eager to celebrate, Bolt did just that – raising his arms in a victorious stance.
He’s a funny man – and could definitely have had a career in comedy if he hadn’t got into sport. But that’s not all Bolt was good at. He was skilled at both football and cricket as a youngster, and I asked him why, despite this, he eventually picked track and field.
“My dad,” he says. “I was great at all of them, I would have pursued cricket, too, or football. But my dad guided me more towards track and field, because there was no money in football, in cricket then.”
A far cry from what we hear today, in a time when the most significant amounts of money are largely concentrated on those two sports.
He plays off generic questions about injuries, recovery and retirement. They’re questions he’s likely heard a million times before; it wasn't the first time, and it was certainly not the last.
But he handles each one with patience, pausing only once to say “oh, of course you went there,” with mock exasperation.
Referring to football prompts me to quickly ask another question, one I know he will likely not be too happy to answer. Usain Bolt is a known, committed fan of Manchester United, who on the day of the conference were fresh off a 1-1 draw with Liverpool in the second leg of the Europa League, played on United’s stomping grounds at Old Trafford.
Having already lost 2-0 to Klopp’s Reds at their home in Anfield, United were now behind 3-1 on aggregate – and, consequently, out of the league. As a result, United took on the ignominous title of being the only English club out of both the Champions League and the Europa League.
Still, the question was posed, and Bolt grinned and grimaced all at once.
There was another incredibly famous face behind Bolt’s – that of another track and field legend, Welsh sprinter Colin Jackson, who co-chaired the event. And his face was not half as disappointed as that of the Jamaican legend, with Jackson applauding the query as titters moved through the giggling crowd, largely comprised of nations that follow football obsessively – Brazil, France, Spain.
It will have been a familiar joke with a few members of the PUMA team, who were English – and one of whom also happened to be a United fan.
Bolt shook his head. “Man, I don't know. Bad, it’s bad. I have nothing to say,” he told me, shaking his head from side to side. Jackson grinned even wider in the background and, as it stood, with good reason.
“It’s got so bad I’m happy if we finish in the top 6 this season man, that's all I want,” Bolt said, clearly exasperated, as are most United fans world over with their favourite team’s lacklustre performances this season.
Pressing on, I asked Bolt the question on the mind of most football fans at the moment – or at least a man who is right on the top there.
“Not a [Louis] van Gaal fan, then?"
And again, the head shook from side to side. “No way. Not at all. Don’t like him. So disappointed, man. I’ll be happy if we can even finish in the top 6 this year – it’s terrible.”
He's a long-time fan of the iconic Sir Alex Ferguson, who has all but become synonymous with his former club. And like many United fans Bolt would like the Dutchman, who famously asked his players to be more ‘horny,’ to leave the club.
"Who then, Mourinho,?" I trail off as Bolt grins, but the real kicker comes later, when, as the press meet wraps up, world record holder Jackson comes up to me to congratulate me on the question.
There’s a reason he was so thrilled earlier – the Cardiff-born two-time world champion and Olympic silver medallist is a Gooner.
Arsenal have been in good nick this season, and will look for a top finish this year despite a stellar march by underdogs Leicester City – a club both Bolt and Jackson acknowledge. But it’s the Gunners who will come out on top still, says Jackson, and says his favourites are two former players – albeit from different generations – Ian Wright and Thierry Henry.
And there are other games Bolt is good at, too. Having just won in the Yoshi-Mario off, he’s asked if he liked any indoor games.
“Just one. Call of Duty. Was great at it. Nothing else.”
Come May and duty will call again for the tall Jamaican, whose immense speeds are far from being surpassed. A different kind of duty certainly calls – to the black, green and yellow.
And judging from our interview, he’s not only in high spirits, but more than up for the task at hand.
If anyone is, it’s Usain St. Leo Bolt.
