Usain Bolt who is now 37 years old says it’s a “great feeling” when he looks back and thinks about his accomplishments on the track and despite loving life without the ‘hard’ training, he wishes at times that he was competing nowadays “i love competition” he states in an interview released on Thursday.
The Jamaican reveals his thoughts about track and field currently and how it was for him 15 years ago when he set multiple world records at the peak of his abilities. The 9.58 man also declared that he would have loved to compete against the usually outspoken Noah Lyles to “cool” him down.
“I love competition… even now like i see like Noah Lyles running, i’m like yow, i wish he was in my era to.. be cool.. it’s different.. i wish i was in this era… it’s fun, like i live for competition,” Bolt said before recalling moments when he was running in none competitive races that were not “fun” for him.
One of the hosts asked him if he wanted to compete with Lyles “to put him in his place” to which Bolt responded, saying “Yes!”. “I want to beat everybody,” stated Bolt as he detailed that he always wants to beat the ‘best’.
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In the interview done on the The Obi One Podcast, Bolt recalled not seeing his main competitor, in the 2008 Olympics race after 55m, which caused him to start to celebrate before the finish line. “That was the fittest i ever been… i have no issues that season,” said Bolt.
Bolt who is from Trelawny, Jamaica was asked about feeling pressured in races, he responded by stating that the most pressured moment in his career was early on in Jamaica in 2002 at the National Stadium when he won the World Juniors.
After seeing another local top athlete not winning her race at the event, prior to his race, he said that got him nervous. “In 2002 i competed in front of my home crowd in Jamaica when I won the world juniors and to me that was the roughest moment of my entire life… through my whole career, I’ve never been so nervous, never been so stressed,” Bolt stated.
He went on to detail that he put on the “wrong shoe” just before the race because he was very nervous and felt pressured to win as the crowd was chanting his name. Bolt next declared that, after that experience, he was focused on being in good shape to win the race because once he’s in good shape he has nothing to worry about including the loud crowds.
Watch the Interview below
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