Usain Bolt is a track and field athlete who has competed for Jamaica.
He competed at the 2004, 2008, 2012, and 2016 Summer Olympic Games.
Bolt was widely considered as the world's greatest and fastest sprinter of all-time. He won a total of eight Olympic gold medals. When he first competed as a 17-year-old in 2004, he was hampered by a leg injury that exited him early from the first round of the 200 metres. Bolt rose to prominence four years later in Beijing, when he set a new world record of 9.69 to win his first gold in the 100 metres. He also lowered Michael Johnson's 1996 world record to add another gold in the 200 metres and helped his Jamaican teammates produce another world-record-breaking feat in the 4x100 metres relay, increasing his gold medal count to three. The feat also made Bolt the first sprinter since Don Quarrie to hold both 100 and 200 metres world records simultaneously and to break both of them in a single Olympiad since the rise of electronic timing.
At London 2012, Bolt returned to his third Games as the triple Olympic champion in the sprint races. He was also selected to carry the Jamaican flag during the opening ceremony. In the 100 metres, he improved his Olympic record to defend the 100 metres title for the first time since Carl Lewis in 1988. Then, he followed up with another defense in the 200 metres and enjoyed his Jamaican teammates Yohan Blake and Warren Weir taking the other podium spots for a complete 1–2–3 sweep. He closed out his London 2012 stint by winning his third gold and sixth overall as a member of the Jamaican men's 4x100 metres relay team. With this, Bolt became the first man in history to strike the "double triple", topping the 100, 200, and 4x100 metres relay twice.
At his fourth and final Games in 2016, Bolt set a historic record as the first man to attain a "triple triple" after he won a gold in the 100 and 200 metres for the third straight time and anchored his Jamaican team to another 4x100 metres relay gold. Bolt closed his Olympic career with nine golds, tying the record set by Lewis and Paavo Nurmi. In January 2017, Bolt was stripped of the 4x100 metres relay gold from Beijing 2008 because his teammate Nesta Carter was found guilty of a doping violation, decreasing his gold medal count to eight.
Athletics 2016 • Men's 4x100 metre relay