Usain Bolt's 40th Birthday Countdown

Usain Bolt Timeline

Usain Bolt records

About Usain Bolt

Bolt's 9.58-second 100 m and 19.19-second 200 m world records from 2009 still stand, and his eight Olympic gold medals across three Games made the lightning-bolt pose the most famous celebration in sport.

Shoes on the wrong feet in Kingston

Before he was Lightning, Usain Bolt was a cricket-mad kid in rural Trelawny whose fast bowling was so quick that coaches steered him to the track. At 15, he lined up for the 200 m at the 2002 World Junior Championships in front of 36,000 home fans at Kingston's National Stadium - so nervous he put his spikes on the wrong feet. He fixed them, won gold, and became the youngest male world junior champion in history.

9.58 seconds - and a shoelace untied

In Beijing in 2008, Bolt won the Olympic 100 m in a world-record 9.69 seconds with one shoelace untied, slapping his chest in celebration 20 metres before the line. A year later in Berlin he ran 9.58 for the 100 m and 19.19 for the 200 m - world records that still stand today. Across Beijing, London and Rio he collected eight Olympic gold medals, and his lightning-bolt pose became the most famous celebration in sport.

Giving Sherwood Content a sprinting start

Bolt never stopped investing in the tiny village that raised him. The Usain Bolt Foundation's very first project, in 2010, rebuilt Sherwood Content's dilapidated health centre; in 2013 it added a multipurpose sports court with the Digicel Foundation. In 2022 he returned to his old Waldensia Primary school with a free dental outreach mission for students. Under the motto 'Daring Youth to Sprint to Big Dreams', the foundation keeps funding schools and facilities across Jamaica.

Quick facts

• Born August 21, 1986, in Sherwood Content, Jamaica
• 100 m world record: 9.58 seconds (Berlin, 2009) - still standing
• 200 m world record: 19.19 seconds (Berlin, 2009) - still standing
• Eight Olympic gold medals across three Games (2008, 2012, 2016)
• At 15, became the youngest-ever male world junior champion, winning 200 m gold in Kingston in 2002
• His foundation's first project (2010) rebuilt the health centre in his home village