Featured Image Credit: ERIC FEFERBERG/AFP/GettyImages
Topics: Usain Bolt, Olympics, Athletics
Godwin Mathew
Topics: Usain Bolt, Olympics, Athletics
Usain Bolt is one of the greatest athletes of all time and his legacy in sport can be personified after his reaction to being beaten by rival Yohan Blake during the 100m trials for the 2012 Olympic trials in Jamaica.
Despite the second place finish at the trials, Bolt had still done enough to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics. Of course, he later went on to win the gold medal with a 9.63 second run, which remains an Olympic record to this day.
During his career the world's fastest man had a lot of competition on the track for the 100m event. We're talking Blake, Tyson Gay, Asafa Powell and Justin Gatlin to name a few.
But Bolt powered through all of his competitors and grabbed the gold in the 100m race.
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And it was Blake's win at the JAAA national trials in Kingston, Jamaica - which came in 9.75 seconds - that was a huge reason behind that.
Beating Bolt at the peak of his powers was no easy achievement, yet Blake did that as a 22-year-old. He celebrated that with a finger on his lip celebration; something that did not sit well with Bolt.
The eight-time Olympic gold medal winner stated that he did not see Blake's celebration at that moment, but saw the clips later and made up his mind to secure the win at the Olympics.
"When I lost to Blake at the Championships, I hugged him and was like, 'Bro, this will never happen again,' I didn't even see when he did that, it was after I went and watched everything," said Bolt in an interview with Gatlin.
"We had one month to the Olympics after that, I had one more race in Monaco, I cancelled that. They would have given me so much money, that guy kept upping the money.
"I was like, 'I'm not going'. I'm going to train for this month, you must be crazy after that. I probably could have broken the world record again, I didn't give a s***, I just wanted to beat him, you know I never do s***.
"I was doing pushups and everything, I was so p****d.
Bolt added to his glory by beating Blake in the 200m event as well to win gold.
However, the two were teammates in the 4x100 relay event and set a world record time of 36.84.
Blake ran as the third leg in the race before passing the baton to Bolt, who was the anchor and finished the race in style to give Jamaica another track and field medal.
Despite all the competition around him, Bolt continued showcasing elite performances and winning medals at Olympics and World Championships.
He went on to win all the competitions in the 2016 Olympics as well, taking his gold medal tally to eight at the Games.