Featured Image Credit: YouTube / High Performance
Topics: Usain Bolt, Jamaica, Noah Lyles, Athletics
Ryan Smart
Topics: Usain Bolt, Jamaica, Noah Lyles, Athletics
Usain Bolt has said he would compete in a 100-metre sprint again - but only on one condition.
Bolt retired in 2017 as an eight-time Olympic champion over 100-metre and 200-metre distances.
He still holds world records in both 100m and 200m, which were both set at the 2009 World Athletics Championships.
Bolt hasn't been tempted back onto the track since hanging up his spikes for the final time, instead attempting to embark on an ultimately unsuccessful professional football career.
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He did compete in a 'light-hearted' 800-metre race in 2021, but ruled out making any sort of comeback.
Bolt retired at the relatively young age of 31, though had suffered from hamstring injuries towards the end of his career.
He has now stated that he would be willing to return to the track for a one-off race - but only if he could face off against one of the current stars of athletics, Noah Lyles.
Speaking on two-time Olympic gold medalist Justin Gatlin's 'Ready To Go' podcast in February, he said: "I'd like to beat him. Every day, I'm like, 'Why did I retire so early?' Because it'd be another competition. I'd live for that.
"I remember when he just came out and when they asked him, 'You know Usain Bolt?'... he was like, 'Usain Bolt who?'
"I was like, 'Bro, just stop it'. I normally don't say nothing [but] if you don't know who Usain Bolt is, you're in the wrong sport.
"Put some respect on my name, you know what I mean? Every time you talk, you're like, 'Yo, I want to break his record'. Stop it, stop it."
In comparison to Bolt's 200m record of 19.19 seconds, Lyles' personal best over the same distance stands at 19.31.
The American could become the first man to break the Jamaican's record if a new proposed 'super track' - which its creators claim could reduce times by 20 per cent - is introduced by World Athletics.
Although Bolt has questioned some of Lyles' remarks, he is clearly a fan of the reigning Olympic 100m gold medalist.
At a race meet in 2023, the Jamaican met Lyles and was captured telling him: "Keep your same attitude. The sport needs that s**t. We need personality."