Usain Bolt bids emotional farewell but athletics still needs its great showman, writes Lord Coe

Explosive finale: Usain Bolt salutes the crowd inside Jamaica’s national stadium after running his final race on the island, which he won
AFP/Getty Images
Sebastian Coe12 June 2017

Ever since Usain Bolt became the youngest-ever world junior champion at the age of 15 years and 332 days — and in his own back yard, in Jamaica’s national stadium in Kingston — it has been hard to escape his towering presence on the island.

Within steps of clearing Jamaican passport control, a mural — a wash of black, yellow and green — celebrates him and this extraordinary nation’s other sprint kings and queens; and that, after navigating at least five advertising hoardings and a plethora of products in duty free all featuring the athlete.

Drive the 20 minutes or so from the airport into the island’s capital and, every few hundred metres, it is a similar story; every radio station is wall-to-wall Bolt and his last race on Jamaican soil. He even gives Bob Marley a run for his money in the t-shirt stakes.

However, there is no escaping the simple — and, for most Jamaicans, the crushing — reality that the man who has dominated the global sporting and celebrity landscape is calling it a day.

My driver tells me he genuinely does not remember a time in his life when Bolt was anything other than ever-present. My visit to meet Prime Minister Andrew Holness — normally on these occasions a formulaic courtesy call — lasts nearly 90 minutes. He, too, is trying to figure out nationhood without Bolt on the track.

Our conversation focuses almost entirely on how to leverage the extraordinary impact that Bolt has had on the lives of his countrymen. I reassure the PM that he is not the only one pondering life without the superstar.

Not in my lifetime can I remember a sportsman or woman — save for Muhammad Ali — who has so grabbed the imagination of the sporting world as Bolt. He has done it not just because he is, quite simply, the best of all time judged by records and medal haul, but because he is quite the opposite of the pre-programmed robots who so often are thrown up onto the world stage.

Not for him the “I’ll take it one game at a time” platitudes or nervous glances to agents for a steer at run-of-the-mill questions. Bolt is a showman with a personality, although I do accept some of his traits are not always welcomed by his opponents. They can be forgiven, though, because the public love it and the kids who we have fought so hard to excite in the last few years love him.

The biggest challenge athletics faces now is how we remain relevant in the lives of young people — and here the PM and I were in accord: somewhere in this space we both know Bolt can help grow the sport, in Jamaica and globally.

Hours before his last home hurrah in the Racers Grand Prix on Saturday night, people started making their way to the stadium and it was virtually a packed house four hours before his top-of-the-bill 100m. This was one of those “tell your grandchildren” moments. A world-class cast list, including Olympic champions Mo Farah, David Rudisha, Allyson Felix, Sally Pearson and Wayde van Niekerk, were warmly welcomed, their performances acknowledged. But every time the big screens filled to images of Bolt stretching on the warm-up track, the stadium erupted.

In the end, it didn’t matter that he beat a modest field in an average time of 10.03sec. That wasn’t the point. Jamaica had come to say goodbye to their national treasure — and smiles and tears were commonplace as he made his way, Pied Piper-like, on his last lap of honour on home soil, young and old alike chasing in his wake.

The leadership of Jamaica’s athletics federation, who I lunched with before the meet, were clear about his legacy: since Bolt appeared on the scene, the National Schools Championships has doubled in size and, on an island already steeped in athletics history, he has turbo-charged interest.

Farewell, legend: Bolt soaks up the cheers in Kingston
AP

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who in 2008 became the first Caribbean woman to win the 100m Olympic title, articulated her nation’s attachment to athletics. “In Jamaica, track and field is seen as an escape, a means to breach the prison of poverty,” she said. “It is transformative in that it makes the nameless known, the poor wealthy and the underdog respected, revealing the capacity for greatness that lies dormant in us all.”

Jamaicans everywhere will, like all of us involved in our sport, be coming to terms with life without Usain Bolt, but he will never be forgotten.

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