The Last Lightning Strike: Usain Bolt said goodbye to his sports career

On August 13, legendary sprinter Usain Bolt said goodbye to thousands of fans at the Olympic Stadium in London. The 30-year-old Jamaican track and field athlete, nicknamed Lightning Bolt, decided to end his sports career and performed the day before in the 4 × 100 meters relay as part of the Jamaican national team. The performance ended disastrously for the eight—time Olympic champion - after 30-40 meters after the start, Bolt was injured. According to the doctors, most likely, there were convulsions of the left hamstring.

Despite the fact that it is difficult to come up with a worse career ending, Usain Bolt warmly and extremely emotionally said goodbye to fans at the London stadium.

(13 photos in total)

Usain Bolt's farewell run ended with injury.

The athlete with his parents, who were also present during the farewell at the stadium.

For almost 10 years, Usain Bolt has been a symbol of athletics. However, in recent years it has begun to noticeably fail. 2017 was unsuccessful: defeat in the 100-meter (only 3rd place with a score of 9.95), refusal to defend the title in the 200-meter and injury in the relay (without a medal at all).

During the last race, the athlete was injured.

Although a year ago, after the triumph at the Rio Games, where Bolt took three gold medals, it was hard to believe in such an end.

The famous pose performed by Usain Bolt.

In the spring, Bolt's close friend, 2008 Games medalist Jermaine Mason (pictured), who crashed on a motorcycle, died. For Usain, it was the hardest psychological blow, he did not train for the next two weeks.

By the way, after the preliminary races of the relay, the athlete complained about the starting pads, calling them the worst he had ever seen - allegedly they were too soft. The other sprinters didn't say anything about it, but no one showed an outstanding time.

The organizers presented Bolt with a fragment of the memorable running track of the Olympic Stadium at number 7, on which he won three gold medals at the Games five years ago.

Usain Bolt is called a phenomenon in the world of sports. After his performance at the 2008 Olympic Games, experts began to study him. Some even believed that the athlete literally made a leap into the future, since such results as he showed should have been possible only in 30 years.

Others believe that the Bolt phenomenon is explained simply by luck and genetics.

Maybe Usain Bolt left the sport defeated, but in the near future his space records are unlikely to be surpassed by anyone. So the legend of Lightning continues to live.