Usain Bolt claimed he is in the “best shape of my life” after proposing to long-term partner Kasi Bennett on his 40th birthday last month.
Bolt, the eight-time Olympic champion, admitted during an appearance at the World Athletics Championships last year that he had stopped running completely and said, albeit with a smile, that he even got out of breath when attempting stairs.
With a wedding now looming, Bolt gave a rather more upbeat fitness update to reporters at the World Athletics Ultimate Championship, where he has been ever-present watching the action and mingling with the next generation of athletes. He also admitted that his involvement over the past three nights was a reminder of how much he misses the big stage after winning his last Olympic title 10 years ago.
“I’m in the best shape of my life – make sure that’s the headline,” Bolt said, grinning. “I tell you guys: I’m working out. I’ve really been to the gym and working on it every day since I’ve been here. I’m trying to get on it and I’m doing well, you know? I’m happy with where I’m at. So let’s continue working on this. I wasn’t running out of breath walking up the stairs. I was just making a joke.”
Describing his day-to-day life last year, Bolt had said: “Well, normally, I wake up just in time to see the kids off to school. I just watch some series and chill until the kids come home. I spend some time with them, hang out, until they start annoying me. Then I leave. Afterwards, I just watch movies or I’m into Lego now. So I do Lego.
“I think now that I’ve been out for a while, I have to actually start running because when I walk upstairs I get out of breath. I mostly do gym workouts. I think when I start working out fully again, I probably have to do some laps just to get my breathing right.”
Bolt and Bennett have three children – six-year-old Olympia Lightning and five-year-old twins Thunder and Saint Leo – and he admitted that adjusting to a life away from athletics, where he became one of the all-time greats of any sport, came with a certain unavoidable void.
Bolt proposed to Kasi Bennett last month – WireImage/Karwai Tang
“Just being here, especially the first day when we came out, just walking out to the stadium, you feel the energy,” he said. “I do miss that. As a sportsman, you always miss that energy, that vibe, that adrenalin pumping. But it’s not my moment. I just enjoy watching them. I think they’re loving it. It [the World Ultimate] is a different kind of feeling, a different vibe.”
Of his own legacy, he added: “My goal was always to be among the greats in the sports community; I’m so happy that I’m actually in the conversation.”
Bolt, who briefly pursued a career in football after retiring from athletics in 2017, was also bemused by reports last month that he had signed for the Wythenshawe Vets FC team, who play in the Premier Division of the Cheshire Veterans Football League. “I don’t know what happened; first time I found out, he [his agent] sent me an email and goes, ‘Are you playing football now?’ And I was, ‘I dunno what’s going on’. I have no idea.”
