Jamaican icon Usain Bolt revealed how a ‘hurried’ decision in his career became Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce’s advantage, and why he believes his world record will remain untouched for the foreseeable future.
Jamaican track legend Usain Bolt has revealed his one big disappointment after retirement, relating it to Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce‘s advantage from staying longer in the sport.
The eight-time Olympic champion said in a recent interview his long-standing 100m World Record (WR) would have been significantly faster had he competed in today’s advanced “super-spikes.”
Usain Bolt set the current 100m world record of 9.58s at the Berlin 2009 World Championships
Bolt’s current WR of 9.58s at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin to shatter his previous record of 9.69s from the Beijing Olympics a year earlier has remained untouched for 16 years, and he believes he doesn’t see it being broken in the near future.
He now has the longest reign of the 100m WR in history, outlasting the 14-year reign of Jim Hines’ 9.95s run from the Mexico City 1968 Olympics.
Speaking before the World Championships in Tokyo, Bolt endorsed research from his long-time sponsor, Puma, which projected he could have clocked a time of 9.42s with modern carbon-plated spikes. “I fully agree,” he said.
Usain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce. Photo Credit – @usainbolt via X
“Someone who continued after I retired was Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, and I saw what she did—she got faster with the spikes. I probably would have run way faster if I’d continued and if I knew that spikes would have got to that level,” the 39-year-old added.
Fraser-Pryce’s unprecedented feats after Bolt’s retirement
During their active years together from 208 to 2017, Fraser-Pryce and Bolt dominated the men’s and women’s sprint division at the Olympics and World Championships, ushering in a new era of dominant Jamaican sprinters on the world scene.
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce won her first global title at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games
However, when Bolt retired in 2017, the sprint queen continued and had her best career years, by winning her fourth world 100m title at Doha 2019 Championships in 10.71 s—her fastest time since 2013. She also became the oldest woman and first mother since Gwen Torrence at the 1995 World Championships to claim a 100m global title.
In 2022, as a 35-year-old, Fraser-Pryce won a record fifth world title in Oregon, with her winning time of 10.67s the quickest in a women’s global final.
She ended that season as the No.1 overall female athlete across all disciplines, and ran 100m times of 10.62s, 10.65s, 10.66s, 10.67s on four occasions, and 10.70s, recording the eight fastest times of the year. She became the first woman to break 10.70s seven times in a single season and nine total times in their career.
Her improvements in the past eight years unrguably strengthen Puma and Bolt’s statement that he would have gotten faster and broken the world record if he had continued and been aided by the advanced ‘super-spikes’.
Usain Bolt confident on his world record remaining untouched
Despite technological advancements, Bolt is confident his record will remain untouched for the foreseeable future, though he acknowledges the talents of Kishane Thomson and Oblique Seville in Jamaica.
“I think the talent is there and those who are coming up will do well, but at this present moment, I don’t think they will be able to break the world record,” he commented.