USAIN BOLT’S dad took him to the doctor when he was a kid — because he was worried about him running around too much.
He actually wanted to slow his boy down.
The doc assured Gideon Bolt that Usain was simply a hyper- active child who needed to burn his energy up.
Today Usain St Leo Bolt will be burning it up again as he bids to become a unique athletics legend after clocking 20.18sec in last night’s 200 metres semi-final.
No man has ever successfully defended both the 100m and 200m Olympic titles.
Lightning Bolt, 25, got the first part of the job done on Sunday with a blistering 9.63sec victory.
Part two is the Jamaican’s moment of destiny.
The 200m is his great love and only if he wins tonight will he consider his Olympic mission accomplished.
Athletics has never seen the like of Bolt before and it may never do so again.
He defies logic, suffering from a back condition called scoliosis which causes his spine to curve to the right and means he has one leg shorter than the other.
And being 6ft 5in tall with size 13 feet is not ideal when it comes to getting going off the blocks.
Bolt said: “Nobody has been able to explain why I’m so fast.
“Maybe I’m a freak of nature, maybe scoliosis actually helps, I don’t know. However I’m put together, it works.”
But Bolt also has a team behind him to ensure it works even better.
Manager Norman Peart became his mentor when 17-year-old Bolt first moved to Kingston from the Jamaican countryside.
Peart recruited Irishman Ricky Simms to be his agent and was also responsible for approaching the coach who turned him into a running great, Glen Mills.
In their early days together, Mills sent Bolt to get a proper examination of his troubling back complaint from the renowned German specialist Hans Muller-Wohlfhart, who treats many of the world’s top footballers.
He gave Usain the belief that he could still be a king of the track. The sprinter has made regular trips to Munich to see Muller-Wohlfhart ever since and now calls him “the best doctor in the world, a great, great man.”
But perhaps the most significant member of Bolt’s entourage is his best friend going right back to his primary school days, NJ Walker.
Walker is his advisor and sounding board. The pair talk through his races, discuss his problems and Bolt trusts him 100 per cent.
There is nothing the two do not know about each other.
And NJ never had any doubts that Usain would become an athletics ace, even if the man doubted himself.
Walker said: “When people were telling him he was too tall to be a sprinter, I was telling him that was rubbish.
“When Usain thought he might not be able to run because of his back problem I told him to be positive. I was convinced he’d get through it and he did.”
Four years ago in Beijing, Bolt won three gold medals in the 100m, 200m and relay — setting world records in all three events.
But Walker reckons tonight’s 200m final is the biggest deal.
He said: “The 200 will always be the bigger one for Usain.
“We had dreamed about him winning a gold medal in the Beijing Olympics but at 200m rather than 100m.
“When he beat Michael Johnson’s world record of 19.32sec in Beijing it was the best feeling because everyone thought that couldn’t be broken.”
Bolt went on to set more 100m and 200m records at the World Championships in Berlin in 2009 — 9.58sec in the 100m and 19.19sec in the 200m.
The gold medal is the first target for Usain in tonight’s London 2012 final, but he would love another record.
Bolt said: “I dream of being the first man to go under 19 seconds.”
This could be the night. And after his 100m performance at the weekend, who would bet against him?
s.custis@the-sun.co.uk
Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/olympics/4478293/Revealed-The-team-behind-Usain-Bolt.html#ixzz2329P01jc
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