Usain Bolt is fast, but he is actually slower than most other sprinters at the start.
In the 2016 Olympic 100-meter final on Sunday, his reaction time was 0.155, making it the second slowest in a field of eight.
However, as the race goes on, Bolt really shines. He is fastest between the 60- and 80-meter mark.
At his world-record-setting race in Berlin in 2009, Bolt covered the 60- to 80- meter distance in 1.61 seconds and reached a speed of 27.79 mph.
At 6’5”, Bolt is taller than most sprinters, and is able to cover 100 meters in fewer strides. It takes Bolt 41 strides on average, whereas other elite sprinters take around 45.
As good as he is in the 100, the 200 is actually his favorite and stronger distance.
The 200 has always been Bolt’s go-to race — which he also holds the world record in, with a time of 19.19 seconds. In fact, when he won the 100 in Beijing, he had been training for the event for less than a year.
He actually took up the 100-meter because he didn’t like running the longer sprint races.
He was initially a 200-meter runner, and his coach wanted to have him run the 400. They made a bet that if Bolt broke the Jamaican 200-meter record at the national meet in 2007, he could run the 100 instead, and never have to do the 400. Bolt smashed the record of 19.86 with a 19.75 time. He never had to run the 400, and he added the 100 to his arsenal. He’s gotten pretty damn good at it since.
Bolt has never run a full mile, ever.
He really favors short distances.
As good as he is at sprinting, cricket is actually his first love.
He chose track and field because his father figured there would be less competition at a national level.
His main rival is American sprinter Justin Gatlin, and much has been made of their rivalry. However, they are actually friends off the track.
They have nicknames for each other, and have even partied together, according to Gatlin.
While he is no doubt the fastest man alive, he’s also fittingly adopted a cheetah, the world’s fastest land animal.
Back in 2009 Bolt paid $13,700 to adopt a baby cheetah from an animal orphanage in Kenya. He named him Lightning Bolt, and pays $3,000 a year for his care.
It’s not all training and traveling for Bolt. He’s a fan of video games, particularly Call of Duty.
The main room at his home in Jamaica is for video games, which he uses mostly to play Call of Duty.
He currently adheres to a strict diet, but that wasn’t always the case. While at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, he ate 1,000 Chicken McNuggets.
In his autobiography Faster Than Lighting, Bolt says he started out eating 20 at a time, but as the games progressed, he increased his McNugget intake to 100 a day.
With his 100-meter victory in Rio, Bolt is the first man to win gold in the event in three consecutive Olympics.
Bolt’s 100-meter world record time of 9.58 is so fast it’s close to the fastest speed a normal human can possibly achieve.
Stanford biologist Mark Denny published a 2008 study in Journal of Experimental Biology that claims the absolute limit of human speed in the100-meter distance is 9.48 seconds — only ten-hundredths of a second faster than Bolt’s record.
Bolt has done all this while dealing with scoliosis. He was born with the condition and works hard to make sure it doesn’t affect his performance.
He told ESPN the condition made him injury-prone early in his career. He has since strengthened his core and back through training to keep it under control.
To this day Bolt still lives and trains in his home country of Jamaica.
Part of the reason is that he wants to be close to family, friends, and coaches. Another reason is that Jamaica has little to no celebrity culture, so he doesn’t have to worry too much about paparazzi.
Now let’s see how Usain Bolt spends his millions:
Usain Bolt earned $32.5 million in the year running up to the 2016 Olympics.
He is the only track star who made it onto the Forbes list of highest-paid athletes, coming in at No. 32.
Bolt's relationship with Puma started way back in 2002, and his $10 million-a-year deal is by far the most lucrative in athletics.
Bolt's other sponsors include the watchmaker Hublot as well as Gatorade and Virgin Media, with deals ranging in value from $1 million to $4 million.
Prize money in athletics events is relatively low. Bolt earns $10,000 for every race he wins in the Diamond League, but he is often paid appearance fees of up to $400,000 per meet.
Bolt earned $2.5 million in prize money and appearance fees in the past 12 months, according to Forbes.
Another big earner for the Jamaican athlete comes from Bolt's character in the Temple Run mobile gaming franchise, which has more than a billion downloads.
It makes sense that the world's fastest man enjoys reaching high speeds on the road. One of the track star's most lavish purchases is an £80,000 ($105,000) black Nissan GT-R.
Never content with just one trophy, Bolt also owns a special-edition gold GT-R. This one however, was given to him by Nissan after he won three gold medals at the London Olympics in 2012.
Bolt grew up with his parents in Jamaica.
Despite his international success, his main base is not far from home. One of Bolt's biggest purchases is his mansion in the Norbrook housing complex in Kingston, for an undisclosed figure.
Bolt's neighbours are rapper Sean Paul and model Jodi "Jinx" Stewart-Henriques. The couple have complained about the track star's loud and lavish parties in the past.
"Between the bikes, loud, horrid music, parties and screams, I honestly wish he would go back to where he came from," Stewart-Henriques wrote on Facebook in 2015, according to The Daily Mail. "He's a horrible neighbor."
Bolt's partying is not confined to his home. In 2015 he reportedly ordered £10,000 worth of vodka in a Mayfair nightclub ... and accidentally left without settling the bill.
When he realized his mistake the next day, the athlete reportedly returned to the Drama nightclub to settle the bill.
In 2009, Bolt bought a home in Rum Cay Island in the Bahamas for an unknown fee. "Who wouldn't want to live on Rum Cay?" Bolt asked at the time. "It is magnificent."
As well as hard partying and luxury purchases, Bolt also gives back to his community. He regularly donates sports equipment to the Thorpe William Knibb Memorial High School in Jamaica, where he was once a student.
In 2015 Bolt handed over $1.3 million — as well as the usual bounty of sports equipment — to his old school.
Bolt also gives to various other community projects. In 2013 he gave $4 million to renovate a local health centre in Sherwood Content, Jamaica.
One of Bolt's biggest hobbies is music. He has been performing DJ sets in public since 2010. The equipment does not come cheap, with high-end DJ decks costing more than £5,000.
Bolt travels the world in style, often by private jet.
He hangs out with lots of famous figures, including UK royal Prince Harry.
But much of the athlete's time is spent training on the track.
Having just turned 30, Bolt is aware that his speed cannot last forever. He plans to retire after the 2017 World Championships in London, leaving him with much more time to spend that hard-earned cash.
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