Usain Bolt is the fastest man in history. He is the greatest sprinter of all time. A living legend. But he has a phobia — losing at a big championship.
Bolt, who teamed up with Digicel to launch the company’s “Bring the Beat” campaign — which is geared towards a series of activities leading up to the Rio Olympic Games in Brazil — was peppered with questions from several youngsters from the Caribbean aged between six and 10 years old in an interactive session that lasted for approximately an hour.
The event was hosted by nine-year-old Naleighna-Kae McLean, who asked a series of questions before opening the floor to her fellow young Bolt enthusiasts. At times, it appeared Bolt had to dig deep to find answers.
“Good afternoon Mr Bolt, what is your greatest fear?” was one of the questions.Bolt, dressed in a red t-shirt and gray pants, took a deep breath, as he shuffled back into his seat.
“My greatest fear is actually losing at a championship, that’s my greatest fear, like losing at the Olympics,” Bolt revealed to a packed room.
“Usain Bolt… a lot of journalists say Asafa [Powell] is physically fit, but not mentally prepared. I was wondering are you mentally prepared?” asked the young boy. Bolt paused. Once again he looked taken aback. “A very good question. I think… I don’t know how to answer this question correctly,” said Bolt.
While Bolt was still pondering, “Can you run faster than a cheetah?” “Yes,” he answered, laughing. “How do you run so fast Usain Bolt?” another question was thrown at him. Bolt laughed. “I train hard, you hear, I train really hard”. McLean was curious about Bolt’s pre-race routine, which would normally include him gesturing a symbolic sign of the Christian cross.
“Are you a Christian?” she asked. Bolt smiled. “I was brought up in the church”. She then touched on his role models and whether or not his shoes are specially made “because you seem to have big feet”.
“I get my spikes specially made, but I think I have normal size [feet], I wear size 12,” Bolt noted, while adding that his father Wellesley, former 400-metre great Michael Johnson and Jamaica’s sprint icon Donald Quarrie are some of his role models.
The sprint great then took pictures with the kids, signed t-shirts, pictures, books and anything they wanted him to put his signature on.