The lanky sprinter is among 59 track and field athletes in Jamaica’s 63-member delegation which was announced last week.
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His bravado, that self-belief on the startline, the trademark “Lightning Bolt” celebration have all captured the world’s imagination.
Jamaican sprint superstar Usain Bolt acknowledges waiting media after arriving in Rio.
The 6ft 5ins sprinter wants to complete a historic sprint “triple triple” of 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay golds in three consecutive Games.
Meeting the man himself has been a dream ever since.
“This will scare a lot of people, or send a strong message that the sport is serious about cleaning up”, Bolt said.
Arguably the Olympics and its blue-riband sport, athletics, is at its lowest ebb.
“I have been here since 6 a.m. today”, he told The Gleaner, as he held up a hand-written sign pleading to Bolt for an autograph, close to 6 p.m. “Like you see on my shirt, I consider him to be one of the four best athletes in the world”.
Plans to overhaul the sport and make it more exciting have been sidetracked by the Russian doping scandal. “Over time with different ideas, and the athletes that are coming up, the sport will stay current. It will take a while but I think it will get back to its former glory when I walk away”.
The track and field community will take a hit after Bolt’s departure from Olympic competition, but just like Michael Phelps in the pool, the world will at least get to enjoy him one more time in the Olympics.
He said: “The women have really shown more promise running fast times”. World championship silver medallist Justin Gatlin recorded the two fastest times of the season to July 3 with a 9.80 and 9.83 at the USA trials, holding off Trayvon Bromell in 9.84.
“I’m not going to lose one of the golds, for sure”, he said.
He was forced out of the 200-meter final at this month’s Jamaican trials with a torn hamstring, although Bolt had clocked a time of 9.88 seconds over 100 meters in June.
The 29 year old touched down on a flight from London where he captured the 200 metres at last week’s London Anniversary Games.
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“What I can say is that we didn’t want to become refugees, but that’s what happened”, Nadai continued.
