Speaking on The Fix podcast, Bolt rued injuries during his 2011 season when he was “floating”. He also tipped Oblique Seville to return Jamaica to the forefront of men’s sprinting.
It is over 15 years since Usain Bolt set the current 100m world record of 9.58 seconds at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin.
No one has come close to it in recent years with Trayvon Bromell and Fred Kerley the fastest men this decade at 9.76. But the Jamaican sprint legend, coached by Glen Mills, believes he could have gone even quicker.
Bolt spoke at length on a range of subjects on The Fix podcast earlier this month, and revealed that he felt he could have broken his Berlin mark in 2011.
While that season is best remembered for Bolt’s false start in the 100m final of the Daegu World Championships, with teammate Yohan Blake taking gold, the eight-time Olympic gold medallist had only raced sporadically that season due to a number of injuries.
“If I hadn’t got injured in the season, I would have broken the record again,” he insisted. “That year, I was floating. I was running very well and the coach was excited. It was the first time I heard him say we were going to race and break the world record.”
As to whether anyone could break his record in his lifetime, Bolt replied, “Anything is possible. Track and field is evolving fast with the new spikes, everything changes. It’ll take some work but records are records.”
Kishane Thompson took 100m silver behind Noah Lyles at Paris 2024, but Bolt thinks Oblique Seville – who is also coached by Mills – could be Jamaica’s best hope of putting the country back on top in men’s sprinting.
Seville impressed in the semi-finals in Paris, beating Lyles into second, but a groin issue saw him trail home in the final in eighth and last place.
“Oblique can do it,” said Bolt. “If he can stay fit through the season and get it right, he can do it because I’m sure there’s something there, the ability to do it.
“Some of the time, Oblique is kind of fragile. I don’t know if it’s the work situation, if he’s doing enough work, but he can do it. He’s not missed a final yet, so he has to just to get over the hump.”
“The coach believes in him, it’s up to the athlete now to put it all together. Let’s see what he does this season. He’s on the right path, he should get better and better.”
Having retired in 2017, Bolt is now a family man with a four-year-old girl, Olympia, and three-year-old twin boys Thunder and Saint Leo with his long-time partner Kasi Bennett. And he admits he is a “strict” parent like his father.
“My daughter is actually cooler than my sons,” he added. “She’s chill and she’s rough. She’s got tomboy energy, she climbs anything.”
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