In another life, it’s not Usain Bolt the sprint king. It’s Usain Bolt the champion javelin thrower.
After securing an historic ‘triple triple’ of nine Olympic gold medals, the athletics icon used his much-earned downtime at Rio 2016 to try his hand at a new event.
Bolt won 100m, 200m and 4x100m gold at the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games, although one was retrospectively taken awayCredit: AFP
After the action on the day finished in the Olympic Stadium in Brazil, Bolt picked up a spare javelin spear to see if he had it in him to dominate another event.
A select few gathered around Bolt as he ran up and threw the spear where the best javelin throwers in the world had competed just days earlier.
And for a novice, Bolt’s javelin throw wasn’t half bad as he recorded a distance of 56 metres.
It’s an effort that was some way off challenging for gold in the men’s javelin at Rio 2016 with German Thomas Rohler securing the top prize with a mammoth 90.3m.
However, there are other Olympic competitions where Bolt wouldn’t look out of place with the javelin.
Bolt’s throw was longer than four competitors with the javelin in the men’s decathlon and a whole 10m ahead of the worst effort.
If Bolt was competing in the women’s heptathlon then he would’ve won the javelin event as his score was just about longer than Latvia’s Laura Ikauniece-Admidina’s winning throw of 55.9m.
Bolt, who retired from athletics in 2019, lost his ninth gold medal and thus lost his status as the only man to win 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay gold at three separate Olympic Games.
That’s because he and his Jamaica teammates were stripped of their 4x100m relay title from Beijing in 2008 as Nesta Carter’s doping sample from the Games was found to have contained the stimulant methylhexaneamine, a banned substance, following a batch of retesting.
After the ruling in 2017, Bolt said: “Initially I was disappointed, of course. But in life, things happen. I’m not sad… I’m just waiting to see what’s going to happen.
It would be interesting to see Bolt balancing a javelin on his arms while doing his iconic celebrationCredit: AFP
“But I gave up my medal.”
Carter appealed the decision but was unsuccessful in his case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, leaving Bolt on eight golds.
But perhaps if Bolt was to revisit javelin, just maybe he could dream of getting that ninth Olympic gold once more.
WATCH Gout Gout get just inches away from Usain Bolt’s 200m time in blistering sprint
Leave a Reply