Usain Bolt has admitted he could have run even faster times with the benefit of today’s advanced sprint technology, Afrosport reports.
The Jamaican sprint legend holds both the men’s 100m and 200m world records, clocking 9.58 seconds and 19.19s respectively at the 2009 World Athletics Championships in Berlin.
His 100m mark broke the 9.69s record he had set a year earlier at the Beijing Olympics – a benchmark that has now stood for 16 years, surpassing Jim Hines’ 14-year reign with 9.95s set at the 1968 Mexico City Games.
The 39-year-old believes he could have achieved 9.42s in the 100m, with the privilege of the new carbon-plated “super spikes” that are now commonplace. His view echoed findings from German brand Puma, who published research suggesting he could have reached that time using the new footwear technology.
Speaking ahead of the 2025 World Athletics Championships, Bolt reflected: “I’ve been asked many times about whether I could have run faster with today’s technology, and I fully agree with it. Because one individual that continued after I retired was actually Shelly Anne Fraser and I saw what she did – she got faster with the spikes.
“I sat down and thought, you know what, I probably would have run way faster if I’d continued. If I knew that spikes would have gotten to that level, maybe I wouldn’t have [retired] because it would have been great to compete at that level and running that fast.”
Rising Jamaican star Kishane Thompson clocked a blistering 9.75s at the national championships in June – the fastest 100m recorded in the past decade – lifting him to sixth on the all-time list.
Despite such progress, Bolt, who reiterated his confidence in Jamaica’s next generation of sprinters, doubts his long-standing 100m world record is under immediate threat in Tokyo.
“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 said.
Bolt retired in 2017 with eight Olympic gold medals and 11 world titles, yet since his departure no Jamaican man has won the 100m or 200m on the global stage.
Thompson came within five-thousandths of a second of ending that drought at the Paris 2024 Olympics, finishing just behind American Noah Lyles in what is widely regarded as the greatest Olympic sprint final ever, with all eight finalists dipping under 10 seconds.
Nonetheless, Bolt is confident Jamaica’s drought could soon end, with Thompson and Oblique Seville carrying the nation’s hopes in Tokyo.
“I think we have a very good chance this year. Kishane and Oblique have really shown this season that they are performing extremely well,” he said. I’m looking forward to it. They should be one-two because they’ve proved they are running fast times.
“It’s just all about execution. I’m happy to go into the stadium and hopefully present the gold medal to one of them.”
The 2025 World Athletics Championships will take place in Tokyo from Saturday, 13 September to Sunday, 21 September.
