- Title: "Genius" Usain Bolt is like Muhammad Ali, says Coe
- Date: 31st July 2017
- Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (JULY 31, 2017) (REUTERS) IAAF NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (English) IAAF PRESIDENT, SEBASTIAN COE, SAYING: "Usain Bolt is a genius. I can't think of other than Muhammad Ali in my sporting lifetime, I can't think of anybody that has so had an impact inside or beyond their sport. And when you're sitting there, you know, you can have the, you know, the Friday night in the pub conversations about who's the best footballer and who's the best tennis player and we can have arguments about Pele and (Diego) Maradona or (Roger) Federer or you know going back a few generations Rod Laver but there's no argument about this guy in sprinting. He is the best sprinter of all time. But actually what we're going to miss is not the possible improbability within the foreseeable future of somebody winning three Olympic Games back to back or breaking a clutch of world records. It's the personality. And we do want athletes with personalities. You know, in the world of sort of slightly processed sporting characters it's nice to have somebody that has a view and fills a room and fills a stadium but you're not going to, you know, we could have been having these conversations in the 1970s and 1980s about Muhammad Ali; you're not going to replace Muhammad Ali but great athletes come along. There's probably more of a pressure on us now within the IAAF and within the federations as well to figure out how we are smarter about recognising and building up the profiles of great athletes out there and that's probably going to be a major... will be a major priority for us." (SOUNDBITE) (English) IAAF PRESIDENT, SEBASTIAN COE, TALKING ABOUT USAIN BOLT, SAYING: REPORTER, ASKING: "Would you consider maybe a role for him (Usain Bolt) to increase the exposure of your sport?" "My instinct is he'll deal with it (retirement) pretty well. But look it's a, you know every athlete goes through those phases. If ever I'm in any doubt at all about the moment I chose to retire and subsequently over the following 10 or 15 years I used to sit in a quiet room and open a training diary from random from any day over a decade and that's why I knew I wasn't still doing what I was was trying to do back then. So yes he will miss the rhythm and the focus of the day - not straight away, none of us do but we have started a sensible discussion with him; it's a conversation I had three years ago now. I had a similar conversation actually with the prime minister of Jamaica when I was over there for his last race on Jamaican soil and we both have the same challenge in a way; what is it that we can do to maintain his engagement in the sport? He's going to be incredibly busy, he's going to have 101 things and pressures on his time. I've said look if we can claim a little bit of that time we would love to to work with you. Have we tightly prescribed what we're going to do? No but he does want to help. It instinctively feels to me around young people and engagement and the extraordinary bandwidth of impact that he's had and Jamaica is trying to figure out the same thing and if we can both get this right and work together on it then I think it's a virtuous circle for both Jamaica and also for the continued development of global athletics." NEWS CONFERENCE ENDING
- Embargoed: 14th August 2017 21:23
- Keywords: Sebastian Coe describes Usain Bolt as a genius Usain Bolt is like Muhammad Ali Usain Bolt prepares for final world championships IAAF
- Location: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM
- City: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM
- Country: United Kingdom
- Topics: Athletics,Sport
- Reuters ID: LVA0016S1UB0F
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: IAAF President Sebastian Coe said on Monday (July 31) that Usain Bolt is the greatest sprinter of all time and described the Jamaican as a genius.
Coe, who was speaking at the end of an IAAF Council meeting, compared Bolt Muhammad Ali, adding that eight-times Olympic champion would be missed when he retires after the IAAF World Championships in London.
Coe went on to say he hopes Bolt will help the governing body in some shape or form in the future to help nurture the sport and keep it relevant to young people.
Bolt, 30, will compete in the 100 metres and the 4x100-metre relay at the world championships as the Jamaican prepares to bid farewell to the sport he has dominated for the best part of the last decade.
The world championships begin on Friday (August 4) and run for 10 days until August 13. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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