![](\"https://mobile.chinadaily.com.cn/cn/resfile/2025-10-03/011/20251003_011_02_17254.png\")
From his trademark bow-and-arrow pose, to his leisurely victory laps around the track against the backdrop of blaring reggae music, Usain Bolt elevated sprinting into a personality-driven event and gave people a reason to watch.
\n![](\"https://mobile.chinadaily.com.cn/cn/resfile/2025-10-03/011/20251003_011_02_24254.png\")
From his trademark bow-and-arrow pose, to his leisurely victory laps around the track against the backdrop of blaring reggae music, Usain Bolt elevated sprinting into a personality-driven event and gave people a reason to watch.
\nTOKYO — On the night athletics turned to Jamaica once again to find the world's fastest man, the greatest Jamaican sprinter was in a hospitality box in the stadium — his presence literally hovering over a sport that hasn't been the same since he left.
\nOblique Seville might have been crowned the new 100-meter world champion at last month's World Athletics Championships in Japan, but Usain Bolt remains the only track star this century whose fame cascades well beyond sports.
\nEight years since his retirement, nobody has come close to matching his times or his presence. In an interview before the final round of races at the track worlds, he said he feels great about that, because "that's what I worked for".
\n"When I was competing, I was working to break the benchmark," he said. "Now that I've retired, it's a great feeling to know that I'm the benchmark if you want to be the best. You want to be a legend. I wanted to set high standards, and I did. I'm happy about that."
\nThe numbers tell part of this story: He has eight Olympic gold medals, 11 gold medals at world championships and three world records — 9.58 seconds in the 100m, 19.19 in the 200m and 36.84 in the 4x100m relay — that still stand.
\nNo runner has come within .12 seconds of either of his individual marks since he retired.
\nAsked why that is, despite a world in which shoe and track technology gives runners a bigger boost than 15 years ago when Bolt was in his prime, he offered a glimpse why he remains his sport's most engaging ambassador.
\n"Do you really want the answer? We're just more talented," he said. "I'm just saying, you can't run faster (just) with brand-new spikes."
\nSpeed, though, is only part of Bolt's story. It was his ability to use his platform to entertain and bring people together — a skill that couldn't be overlooked in an era when the Olympics needed a recharge. It made Bolt one of track's most electrifying characters.
\nFrom his trademark bow-and-arrow pose, to his leisurely victory laps around the track against the backdrop of blaring reggae music — from his mile-wide smile, to the joy he so effortlessly exuded, despite the excruciating nature of his work — he elevated the sport into a personality-driven lovefest and gave people a reason to watch.
\n"It's the personality," he said. "I think a lot of people, they try to be fun, but it comes off different. It's just having a good time. If you try too hard, it's not going to be the same. But I was just having a good time. That's how I looked at it. I tried to engage with fans and that's why they gravitated to it."
\nLast month's world championships marked Bolt's first appearance at an Olympics or worlds since he exited the sport after the 2017 championships in London.
\nHe is now the father of a five-year-old daughter, Olympia Lightning, and four-year-old twin sons, Saint Leo and Thunder. To them, Bolt is just Dad. But the greatest sprinter of all time said their view might change at the next world championships two years from now, in the place where his career lifted off like a rocket: Beijing.
\n"I'm excited, because I get to bring my kids and I can tell them: 'Listen, this is where it all happened,'" he said, referring, of course, to the 2008 Olympics, where he set three world records and won three gold medals.
\n"I've shown my kids videos and stuff like that. They'll be six and seven, and they'll kind of understand the moment, and I can explain to them what their dad has done over the years."
\n", - "content": "From his trademark bow-and-arrow pose, to his leisurely victory laps around the track against the backdrop of blaring reggae music, Usain Bolt elevated sprinting into a personality-driven event and gave people a reason to watch.
\nFrom his trademark bow-and-arrow pose, to his leisurely victory laps around the track against the backdrop of blaring reggae music, Usain Bolt elevated sprinting into a personality-driven event and gave people a reason to watch.
\nTOKYO — On the night athletics turned to Jamaica once again to find the world's fastest man, the greatest Jamaican sprinter was in a hospitality box in the stadium — his presence literally hovering over a sport that hasn't been the same since he left.
\nOblique Seville might have been crowned the new 100-meter world champion at last month's World Athletics Championships in Japan, but Usain Bolt remains the only track star this century whose fame cascades well beyond sports.
\nEight years since his retirement, nobody has come close to matching his times or his presence. In an interview before the final round of races at the track worlds, he said he feels great about that, because "that's what I worked for".
\n"When I was competing, I was working to break the benchmark," he said. "Now that I've retired, it's a great feeling to know that I'm the benchmark if you want to be the best. You want to be a legend. I wanted to set high standards, and I did. I'm happy about that."
\nThe numbers tell part of this story: He has eight Olympic gold medals, 11 gold medals at world championships and three world records — 9.58 seconds in the 100m, 19.19 in the 200m and 36.84 in the 4x100m relay — that still stand.
\nNo runner has come within .12 seconds of either of his individual marks since he retired.
\nAsked why that is, despite a world in which shoe and track technology gives runners a bigger boost than 15 years ago when Bolt was in his prime, he offered a glimpse why he remains his sport's most engaging ambassador.
\n"Do you really want the answer? We're just more talented," he said. "I'm just saying, you can't run faster (just) with brand-new spikes."
\nSpeed, though, is only part of Bolt's story. It was his ability to use his platform to entertain and bring people together — a skill that couldn't be overlooked in an era when the Olympics needed a recharge. It made Bolt one of track's most electrifying characters.
\nFrom his trademark bow-and-arrow pose, to his leisurely victory laps around the track against the backdrop of blaring reggae music — from his mile-wide smile, to the joy he so effortlessly exuded, despite the excruciating nature of his work — he elevated the sport into a personality-driven lovefest and gave people a reason to watch.
\n"It's the personality," he said. "I think a lot of people, they try to be fun, but it comes off different. It's just having a good time. If you try too hard, it's not going to be the same. But I was just having a good time. That's how I looked at it. I tried to engage with fans and that's why they gravitated to it."
\nLast month's world championships marked Bolt's first appearance at an Olympics or worlds since he exited the sport after the 2017 championships in London.
\nHe is now the father of a five-year-old daughter, Olympia Lightning, and four-year-old twin sons, Saint Leo and Thunder. To them, Bolt is just Dad. But the greatest sprinter of all time said their view might change at the next world championships two years from now, in the place where his career lifted off like a rocket: Beijing.
\n"I'm excited, because I get to bring my kids and I can tell them: 'Listen, this is where it all happened,'" he said, referring, of course, to the 2008 Olympics, where he set three world records and won three gold medals.
\n"I've shown my kids videos and stuff like that. They'll be six and seven, and they'll kind of understand the moment, and I can explain to them what their dad has done over the years."
\n", - "category": "", - "link": "https://mobile.chinadaily.com.cn/cn/html5/2025-10/03/content_011_68ded827ed50ccabe151a91a.htm#011SPORTS", - "creator": "", - "pubDate": "Fri, 03 Oct 2025 00:21:04 +0000", - "enclosure": "", - "enclosureType": "", - "image": "", - "id": "", - "language": "", - "folder": "双语", - "feed": "ChinaDaily", - "read": false, - "favorite": false, - "created": false, - "tags": [], - "hash": "1eb989fb43debe8f66340f854e13e675", - "highlights": [] - }, { "title": "001FRONT - Xi: Forge ahead in advancing modernization", "description": "![](\"https://mobile.chinadaily.com.cn/cn/resfile/2025-10-01/001/20251001_001_01_59739.png\")
President Xi Jinping, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, addresses a reception held on Tuesday at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing to celebrate the 76th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
\nPresident Xi Jinping has called on the Chinese people to continue drawing on historical experience and forge ahead with determination in advancing Chinese modernization, as the country prepares to mark its National Day on Oct 1.
\nXi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks on Tuesday while addressing a reception held in Beijing to celebrate the 76th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
\nXi said that over the past 76 years, under the Party's leadership, the Chinese people have relied on self-reliance and unremitting struggle to achieve remarkable accomplishments that will be remembered by history.
\n"Looking back, the Chinese nation has advanced from the brink of peril to the great journey of rejuvenation. The path has been arduous and filled with hardships, but it has also been full of passion and triumphant progress," he said.
\nIn his address, Xi recalled the grand commemorations hosted earlier in September marking the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45) and the World Anti-Fascist War.
\nThe events, he said, have greatly inspired the national spirit, motivated patriotic enthusiasm and forged the strength of working hard.
\n"We must continue to draw on historical experience to build our country better, and to ensure that the cause pioneered by the older generations of leaders and revolutionary martyrs continues to thrive," Xi said.
\nHighlighting the progress made this year in various undertakings despite complex circumstances, Xi said that China has further deepened reforms across the board, advanced high-quality development, improved people's livelihoods and made new headway in exercising full and rigorous Party self-governance.
\nAs the 20th CPC Central Committee will convene its fourth plenary session in October to discuss major issues related to the formulation of the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) for national economic and social development, Xi called for efforts on the new journey in the new era to plan and implement the goals, tasks and strategic measures for the period and to secure decisive progress toward the basic realization of socialist modernization.
\nTo fully, faithfully and resolutely implement the "one country, two systems" policy, Xi stressed the importance of supporting the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions in better integrating into the country's overall development, developing the economy and improving people's well-being.
\nXi also called for deepening cross-Strait exchanges and cooperation, firmly opposing "Taiwan independence" separatist activities and external interference, and resolutely safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity.
\nFacing a rapidly evolving international landscape unseen in a century, he underlined the need to champion the shared values of humanity, practice genuine multilateralism, and advance the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, the Global Civilization Initiative, and the Global Governance Initiative, so as to jointly build a community with a shared future for humanity.
\n"The great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation is a noble cause unprecedented in human history. Both aspirations and challenges inspire us to forge ahead with a spirit of urgency and perseverance," Xi said.
\nThe reception, held at the Great Hall of the People, brought together dignitaries including Party and State leaders, foreign envoys and recipients of national honors.
\nmojingxi@chinadaily.com.cn
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