Usain Bolt revealed the furthest distance he’d ever run when addressing if he’d do a marathon

Usain Bolt was in attendance at the 2026 London Marathon on Sunday – but will he ever take part in such an event?

Bolt, who boasts nine Olympic gold medals, remains the fastest man of all time across the 100m and 200m distances, setting both records – 9.58 seconds in the 100m and 19.19 seconds in the 200m – at the 2009 IAAF World Athletics Championships in Berlin.

His records have now stood for the best part of two decades, with many trying but ultimately failing to better his lightning-quick times.

But in other events, records have continued to tumble over the aforementioned period, with Sabastian Sawe becoming the first human to break the sub-two-hour marathon barrier in London on Sunday.

The Kenyan, who ate bread and honey to fuel his unprecedented time of one hour 59 minutes and 30 seconds, set a new marathon world record, while records were also broken in the women’s elite race and the wheelchair races.

Several former professional athletes, including former Arsenal and Wales midfielder Aaron Ramsey, also completed the 26.2-mile distance.

And despite being in and around the course on DJ duties, Bolt was not among the 59,000 participants.

But could we see the fastest man of all time run a marathon in years to come?

Earlier this year, the Jamaican, now 39, who serves as Puma’s Director of Performance, was asked if he had, in fact, ever attempted the 26.2-mile distance.

“No, I was a sprinter,” he told Esquire. “We train to run very fast for a short distance. Marathon runners train to run over a much longer distance. Both involve running but are completely different events. I can’t see myself ever running a marathon.”

When asked the furthest he has ever run, he replied: “I jogged a 5k for a charity event once, but generally when I was training we ran multiple repetitions over a short distance. We didn’t really run more than 400m continuously.”

In a separate interview with Runner’s World back in 2024, Bolt even claimed “anything over 600 metres was too much”.

“My coach forced me to run a few 600 metres and a few quarter miles, but I would never go longer,” he explained.

Of course, Bolt has nothing to prove to anyone, given his lengthy list of achievements, but there’s no doubt seeing the fastest man of all time run 26.2 miles would draw significant attention.

Although based on what Bolt has said previously, fans shouldn’t hold their breath.