In an age where doping scandals are diluted by the sheer volume and depths we see athletes and Governments will go to achieve success, I don’t think it unreasonable to question the achievements of Usain Bolt.
His fellow competitors have doped. His Jamaican teammates, male and female have doped. Has he doped or is he literally just a freak of nature blessed with immense physical attributes?
I defended Lance Armstrong when all of his cycling peers were been busted for PEDs. I remember using the lines he’s the most tested, he has the most to lose, his weight loss post-cancer made him a freak. Look what happened there. Usain, for me is different. I love a fairy tale but I have to consider his achievements rationally. Once bitten, twice shy.
It seems Bolt has always been at the top of his game. He was a World Junior champion in 2002 & 2003 then World Youth Champion before all of the Senior success we have seen him achieve since 2007. In fact, the only blip on his CV are silver medals at the Osaka World Championships in 2007. Everything else is just gold, gold, gold.
So he has always been good. Very tall, a massive stride, able to run very fast. A naturally gifted sprinter but my concern about doping is justified when I see Jamaican teamates and fellow competitors like Asafa Powell, Jason Gatlin and Tyson Gay get busted. History tells us if some dope the ones who are better probably do too. So one hand, to me, he must be but then I look at how the anti-doping authorities test now and with successful retrospective testing having taken place on samples going back to London 2012 and Beijing 2008 I have to assume he is targeted, his samples from those Olympics are clean, all of his current samples are clean so he must be clean.
Having now convinced myself the fairy tale may be true, if I look at his achievments, what he has won, the Olympic and World Championship gold medals, the World Record. No one has ever got near to the same level of success, so therefore I can only conclude he is the greatest sprinter of all time.