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News > Sport

Bolt Treasured by Jamaicans Not Only for His Speed

  • Usain Bolt of Jamaica smiles as he looks back at his competition, while winning the 100-meter semi-final sprint, at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

    Usain Bolt of Jamaica smiles as he looks back at his competition, while winning the 100-meter semi-final sprint, at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. | Photo: Reuters

Published 8 June 2017
Opinion

What Bolt will do after retirement is unknown, but the prime minister said there was an open invitation for him to play a role in government.

Usain Bolt's value to Jamaica over the last decade has gone far beyond just winning medals on the track, the island's leading athletes and politicians said, as the sprint king prepares for his final race on home soil this week.

The 30-year-old multiple Olympic gold medalist, who has decided to retire after the world championships in London in August, will bid farewell to the fans in his island home in the 100 meters at Saturday's Racers Grand Prix.

For Jamaicans he ranks as a national treasure, transcending his sport just as Brazilian Pele did soccer and Muhammad Ali boxing.

"Usain Bolt continues in that great tradition of voices that amplify Jamaica," Prime Minister Andrew Holness told Reuters in an interview at the Kingston National Stadium on Wednesday.

"Great personalities like Usain Bolt ... make people want to see what else Jamaica has to offer, so he literally opens doors for Jamaica to the rest of the world."

Before Bolt, Don Quarrie was one of Jamaica's best-known track and field athletes after he won gold in the 200 meters at the 1976 Olympics.

Quarrie said Bolt's impact was as much about his spirit as about his sporting feats.

On Saturday Jamaicans will see Bolt run his last competitive race on the Caribbean island.

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