Featured Image Credit: Getty
Topics: Usain Bolt, Olympics, Athletics
Marcus Chan
Sprinting legend Usain Bolt has already had one of his Olympic gold medals stripped amid claims he could lose his world record due to a potential rule change.
Jamaican great Bolt is one of the most successful athletes of all time, having won eight Olympic gold medals during his illustrious career.
The 38-year-old is also the current holder of the 100m and 200m world records.
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Bolt first broke the world record when he set a time of 9.72 seconds at a Grand Prix meet in New York before running a time of 9.69 in the 100m final at the Beijing 2008 Olympics.
A year later, Bolt broke his own world record again when he clocked 9.58 at the 2009 World Athletics Championships in Berlin.
However, Bolt technically won nine gold medals but had one stripped from his records nearly a decade after the event.
One of the first golds he achieved at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing was taken off him because it came in the 4x100-metre relay and his teammate Nesta Carter was hit with a doping sanction nine years later.
The team set a new world record of 37.10 seconds for the relay but all four participants were stripped of their medals.
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Recently, it was claimed that Bolt's 100m world record could be beaten in the future if a new 'super track' is to be introduced.
Hong Kong-born sprinter turned entrepreneur, Alvina Chen, who has worked with a British-based team of experts, is the brains behind the the world’s first digital ‘smart’ track, which is expected to be "20 per cent faster than the Paris Olympic track".
Chen, who founded Feldspar, explained: "There is the potential for early nine seconds if not sub nine seconds for a human. We see how running shoes have evolved a lot, training methods and nutrition… but one thing that hasn’t changed pretty much is the track surface – that hasn’t changed for like 60 years, from the 1968 Olympics."
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Chen added: "We believe we are creating the first major advancement. With our track, we anticipate that it will be 20 per cent faster than the Paris Olympic track, depending on athlete ability and external conditions.
"Our vision is to have the track become the universal standard all over the world. We have the world’s fastest running surface."
It has been suggested that 'positive talks' have been held with World Athletics with regard to ratifying Feldspar’s “super track”.
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As the fastest man over both 100 and 200 metres, the controversial change could have a direct impact on Bolt if it increases the likelihood of somebody like Noah Lyles overtaking him.
Team USA's Lyles, who won gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics in the 100m race, previously said he doesn't idolise Bolt - or any other athlete, for that matter.
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"You can admire someone, you can respect someone in track and field – in any sport – but if you start letting them become your idol, then it becomes a point of, you're gonna put them on this pedestal that you won't be able to break," he said in 2018.