Usain Bolt Has Never Run a Mile in His Life

Usain Bolt, the world's fastest man, has never run a mile in his life.

Not Available Lead
Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

Not Available Lead

Next time someone criticizes your lack of a workout routine, just tell them that you're living your life like Usain Bolt

Throughout his career, Bolt has accomplished many things. Being considered the World's Fastest Man? Check. Holding the world record for the 100 meter dash? Yup. He set a mark of 9.58 seconds in 2009. Holding the world record for the 200 meter dash? Absolutely. He bested his old record in 2008 by finishing the race in 19.19 seconds the following year. Win multiple Olympic gold medals? Yes, Usain has seven to his name. Run a mile? Eh,nope. 

In a piece from the New Yorker titled "How Fast Would Usain Bolt Run the Mile?," writer Charles Bethea speculates how the Jamaican sprinter would stack up against Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco, who set the world record in 1999 by running one mile in three minutes, forty-three seconds, and thirteen hundredths of a second. The piece's final paragraph included an interesting revelation from Bolt's agent Ricky Simms. 

Bolt’s agent, Ricky Simms, won’t say whether he believes that his client could run a mile in less than five minutes. But Simms confirmed, over e-mail, that the world’s greatest sprinter has, in fact, never tried running that far: “Usain has never run a mile.”

With that being said, LetsRun.com co-founder Robert Johnson claims to be "very confident" that Bolt would not even break five minutes, adding: "If that was the over/under, I’d mortgage my nonexistent house to try to bet up to six figures he was over that."

Send all complaints, compliments, and tips to sportstips@complex.com.

Latest in Sports