UK: ATHLETICS: Usain Bolt says his aim this summer is to retain his Olympic gold medals and become a legend -- and the Jamaican insists he's not worried about Yohan Blake
Record ID:
330941
UK: ATHLETICS: Usain Bolt says his aim this summer is to retain his Olympic gold medals and become a legend -- and the Jamaican insists he's not worried about Yohan Blake
- Title: UK: ATHLETICS: Usain Bolt says his aim this summer is to retain his Olympic gold medals and become a legend -- and the Jamaican insists he's not worried about Yohan Blake
- Date: 23rd July 2012
- Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (RECENT, 2012) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF THE MEN'S 100 METRE, 200 METRE, 4x100 METRE RELAY OLYMPIC CHAMPION USAIN BOLT POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPHS BY A LONDON BUS WITH HIS PUMA RUNNING SHOES AROUND HIS NECK (SOUNDBITE) (English) THREE-TIMES OLYMPIC CHAMPION, USAIN BOLT, TALKING ABOUT HOW IMPORTANT IT IS FOR HIM TO SUCCEED AT LONDON 2012, SAYING: "Well it's very important. I want to be a legend and that is what it takes. It is very, very important and it is pretty much the elite, so I have to go out there and execute and do extremely well." VARIOUS OF BOLT POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPHS (SOUNDBITE) (English) THREE-TIMES OLYMPIC CHAMPION, USAIN BOLT, TALKING ABOUT HIS OPPONENTS, SAYING: "No, you try not to worry about them. You definitely watch their race, listen out keenly to see what they are up to because you definitely want to know if they are really getting better or whatsoever. I never really sit down and think about it. Friends tell me, or you may watch a race here and there, but I never really worry about it." ZOOM IN ON BOLT POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPHS (SOUNDBITE) (English) THREE-TIMES OLYMPIC CHAMPION, USAIN BOLT, SAYING: "No, for me, when I go into a race it is all about going in their confident. You have to be confident when you go in to a race and for me that is always key. I am always ready, as long as I am fit there no worries. I go in there ready and focused, just execute. As long as I execute right, I know I won't lose a race, so there is no worries." BOLT POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPHS (SOUNDBITE) (English) THREE-TIMES OLYMPIC CHAMPION, USAIN BOLT, SAYING: "Disappointing, yes as long as it's not one of my individual gold medals then it won't be so much because you can't predict what will happen in the relays but I definitely want to go in there and do my best and win my personal individual races, so should be okay." VARIOUS OF BOLT POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPHS (SOUNDBITE) (English) THREE-TIMES OLYMPIC CHAMPION, USAIN BOLT, TALKING ABOUT HAVING TO DEDICATE SO MUCH TIME TO TRAINING, SAYING: "It's easy, you got to know what you want pretty much. I know exactly what I want, I want to be a legend and I know what it takes to be a legend, so all I have to do is go out there and just execute and I'm working on that, everything is coming together, technique is coming together, start is coming together so I'm happy with where I am at." MORE OF BOLT POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPHS (SOUNDBITE) (English) THREE-TIMES OLYMPIC CHAMPION, USAIN BOLT, TALKING ABOUT HOW FAST HE CAN GO IN THE 100 METRES, SAYING: "Well, I don't know. I think a lot of people have been talking about nine, nine-four all season. I think you never know the possibility, you never know what is possible. So for me, I am definitely going to go there and run hard. But it is never about the times. It is always about the gold medals. So for me, gold medals are the first things on my page that is what I am going for." VARIOUS OF BOLT TALKING TO THE BUS CONDUCTOR (SOUNDBITE) (English) THREE-TIMES OLYMPIC CHAMPION, USAIN BOLT, TALKING ABOUT HIS CHANCES OF BREAKING THE 19 SECONDS BARRIER IN THE 200 METRES, SAYING: "For me, I think personally me and my coach have talked about it, and I think that's probably more realistic one because I know I can work on a few more things over 200 metres. And for a fast track, which I heard the track is very good, and I think that will be more possible. But I can't predict times you never know what will happen on the day; the weather, the feeling, whatever so but I am definitely just focused on just going out there and getting a win." BOLT AND THE CONDUCTOR STANDING IN THE BUS TILT UP FROM THE RUNNING SHOES TO BOLT (SOUNDBITE) (English) THREE-TIMES OLYMPIC CHAMPION, USAIN BOLT, SAYING: "The 200 is my favourite race but I think the 100 kind of overshadows it but I enjoy running the 200 metres a lot." TILT DOWN FROM BOLT TO HIS SHOE (SOUNDBITE) (English) THREE-TIMES OLYMPIC CHAMPION, USAIN BOLT, TALKING ABOUT THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF JAMAICA'S INDEPENDENCE, SAYING: "Yeah I think a lot of people are going to be expecting a lot. I think the funniest thing is that on the exact same day of the 100-metres finals is actually the 50th anniversary, so it would be a good birthday gift so definitely going to go out there and do my best, run as hard as I always do and hopefully everything will work out." BOLT POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPHS (SOUNDBITE) (English) THREE-TIMES OLYMPIC CHAMPION, USAIN BOLT, TALKING ABOUT THE 2017 IAAF WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS IN LONDON, SAYING: "Yes I am looking forward to that, I think that is where I will retire but I am not sure. If London goes well I think I may want to come to the world championship, which will be in London then. But we will take it a year at the time and hopefully see where it goes from there." MORE OF BOLT POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPHS
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- Topics: People,Sports
- Reuters ID: LVA265OTG7A7HB0ZI4XS30B6TN0W
- Story Text: The fastest man in the world, Usain Bolt, says the thing that really drives him forward is the dream of becoming a legend.
The three-times Olympic champion, Bolt won gold medals in the 100 metres, 200 metres and 4x100 metres relay at the 2008 Olympic as well as breaking all three world records, and is looking to defend his titles.
Only Carl Lewis has successfully defended the Olympic 100 metres gold medal and if Bolt was to do that he would be on the verge of legendary status at the age of 25.
And Bolt realises the significance of performing at his best in London, where the four current fastest men in the world will face off against each other.
"Well it's very important," Bolt told Reuters TV. "I want to be a legend and that is what it takes. It is very, very important and it is pretty much the elite, so I have to go out there and execute and do extremely well."
Bolt will be up against his two compatriots Yohan Blake and Asafa Powell as well as American Tyson Gay. Blake beat Bolt in both the 100m and 200m at the Jamaican Olympic trials last month but he is not too concerned about his opponents.
"You try not to worry about them," he said. "You definitely watch their race, listen out keenly to see what they are up to because you definitely want to know if they are really getting better or whatsoever.
"I never really sit down and think about it. Friends tell me, or you may watch a race here and there, but I never really worry about it."
One thing that does concern Bolt is his right hamstring, which has been troubling since the trials. He needed some stretching and massage treatment for a tight hamstring following his 200m defeat by Blake.
He immediately withdrew from last Friday's Monaco Diamond League meeting where he had been due to run the 200m in a last race before the Olympics.
Bolt then travelled to Germany to see renowned German sports doctor Hans-Wilhelm Muller-Wohlfahrt, though his agent Ricky Simms said the trip had been long-scheduled as part of his regular "prehabilitation" regime.
The 6ft 5ins (1.95m) sprinter suffered with hamstring troubles early in his career, a problem linked to a curvature in his spine, and has to put himself through a gruelling stretching and conditioning regime to prevent any recurrence.
Simms is confident Bolt will be in good shape for London and the Jamaican says if that is the case then he has nothing to worry about.
"For me, when I go into a race it is all about going in their confident," he said. "You have to be confident when you go in to a race and for me that is always key. I am always ready, as long as I am fit there's no worries.
"I go in there ready and focused, just execute. As long as I execute right, I know I won't lose a race, so there is no worries."
Bolt, like the rest of the all-conquering Jamaica athletics squad, is training behind closed doors in Birmingham, around 100 miles north of London, before moving south for the start of the track and field programme on August 3.
Running with aches and niggles are part and parcel of an international sprinter's life, but winning a multi-round championship with an injury is another matter all together.
Bolt, who has been given a specially-made 7ft bed in his Birmingham quarters, will also be defending his 200 metres title and will hope to help Jamaica defend the 4x100 gold they also won in world record time four years ago.
That programme represents a minimum of nine separate races in eight days and while some of the heats will be run on cruise control, the semis and finals will be at full bore.
That is a punishing regime for a fully fit athlete but an impossible one for a sprinter with the slightest question mark over a hamstring. But Bolt insists it is all worth it.
"It's easy, you got to know what you want pretty much," he said. "I know exactly what I want, I want to be a legend and I know what it takes to be a legend, so all I have to do is go out there and just execute and I'm working on that, everything is coming together, technique is coming together, start is coming together so I'm happy with where I am at."
Team mate and former world record holder Asafa Powell withdrew from the London Diamond League meeting on July 13 with a groin injury while Tyson Gay, the second-fastest man in the world, needed treatment for a minor groin strain after winning that race in cold and wet conditions. Gay failed to make the 100m final four years ago as he ran with a groin/hip problem which eventually needed surgery and will be desperate to toe the line fully fit this time.
Should Bolt, Gay, Powell and Blake all start the heats on August 4 it will be the first time since the introduction of electronic timing in 1968 that the four current fastest men in the world will all be racing each other for Olympic Gold.
Bolt's 100m world record is 9.58 seconds which he set at the World Championships in Berlin in 2009.
Bolt admits the 200m is his preferred event but many believe Bolt is saving his best for the 100m at this year's Olympics so he can break that record again but he is not so sure.
"The 200 is my favourite race but I think the 100 kind of overshadows it but I enjoy running the 200 metres a lot," he said. "I think a lot of people have been talking about nine (seconds), 9.4 all season (for the 100m).
"I think you never know what is possible. So for me, I am definitely going to go there and run hard. But it is never about the times. It is always about the gold medals. So for me, gold medals are the first things on my page that is what I am going for."
For the 200m, though, Bolt is more confident about breaking his world record of 19.19, also set at Berlin in 2009.
"I think personally, me and my coach have talked about it, and I think that's probably more realistic one because I know I can work on a few more things over 200 metres," he said.
"And for a fast track, which I heard the track is very good, and I think that will be more possible. But I can't predict times you never know what will happen on the day; the weather, the feeling, whatever so but I am definitely just focused on just going out there and getting a win."
The day of the 100m final, August 6, will be a special one for Bolt as well as Blake and Powell as it is the 50th anniversary of Jamaica gaining full independence from Britain.
"I think a lot of people are going to be expecting a lot," he added. "It would be a good birthday gift so definitely going to go out there and do my best, run as hard as I always do and hopefully everything will work out."
Bolt is even thinking beyond the Olympics and looking as far as the 2017 IAAF World Championships in London. The Jamaican will be 30 when that comes around and he plans to retire at the end of those championships.
"Yes I am looking forward to that (the 2017 world championships)," Bolt said. "I think that is where I will retire but I am not sure. If London goes well I think I may want to come to the world championship, which will be in London then. But we will take it a year at the time and hopefully see where it goes from there."
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