With the World Championships set for Tokyo in 2025, athletics will once again take centre stage – but no man has captured the imagination of fans quite as much as Usain Bolt.
Bolt, 38, created history when he won both the 100 and 200 metre gold medals in three consecutive Olympic Games.
The incredible run began at the Beijing Games in 2008, continued in London in 2012 and was completed at the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro.
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He then retired after the IAAF World Athletics Championships in 2017 aged 31 with his legacy cemented.
Following his retirement from running, Bolt dabbled in football.
He scored two goals in pre-season games for Australian side Central Coast Mariners, but of course, it was virtually impossible for him to eclipse what he achieved as a sprinter.
In the years since he said goodbye to the sport, he’s been asked if he would return.
Bolt was adamant that the answer was no.
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"I've seen too many people retire and come back just to make it worse or to shame themselves. I won't be one of those people," he said in 2017.
Other sports, such as boxing, are littered with successful stories of comebacks – although sprinting is not one of them.
Not that there isn’t a tinge of regret that he did retire relatively early, especially with the prospect of competing against the likes of Noah Lyles.
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Speaking on two-time Olympic gold medallist Justin Gatlin's 'Ready To Go' podcast in February, Bolt 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.”
But such a comment was more of a throwaway line ruminating about how he enjoyed competing, rather than a realistic making a claim about coming back.
Injuries curtailed the Jamaican's later performances, so by the 2017 World Championship he came third in the men’s 100m race before pulling up injured in the 4x100m relay in London, England.
"For me," said Bolt. "I don't think one championship is going to change what I've done."
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It’s too late now for Bolt to return to the track, but his incredible performances on the track have ensured his memory will live on for an awfully long time.
Topics: Usain Bolt, Athletics, Olympics, Noah Lyles
Mark Sanderson