Usain Bolt is back in Japan — 18 years after winning his first global championship medals in Osaka — to watch a new era of Jamaican sprinting, and to bid farewell to another legendary champion who was part of his generation.
Bolt, a 39-year-old who retired at the 2017 World Championships, is looking forward to watching the women’s and men’s 100m finals in the Tokyo Olympic Stadium on Sunday (morning ET, live on CNBC and Peacock).
Jamaica could win medals in both events for the first time since Bolt’s last world title in 2015 (when Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce won one of her record five women’s 100m world titles).
Jamaica boasts the world’s fastest man of 2025, Kishane Thompson, plus Oblique Seville, who beat Olympic 100m gold medalist Noah Lyles in July and August races.
At the 2024 Paris Olympics, Thompson led the 100m final for most of the race, but Lyles overtook him by five thousandths of a second.
Seville had the second-fastest time in the Olympic semifinals, and the fastest time in the 2023 World Championships early rounds, but did not win a medal either year.
“I think we’re looking good this year,” Bolt told Lewis Johnson. “They both are on a better path this year. With Kishane, I think he might have gotten the jitters out from last year. But I think that was the main thing. It was his first big, major championship (at the 2024 Olympics), right? To get into the finals and be one of the favorites is always going to be tough. So I think that’s something that is good for him. When it comes to Oblique, I think he’s been there so many times. I think it’s just his time.”
Bolt is also excited for Fraser-Pryce, who will compete in her last meet before retiring.
Like Bolt, Fraser-Pryce won her first global title at the 2008 Beijing Olympics as a 21-year-old.
“There’s no words to talk about Shelly-Ann,” Bolt said. “Every now and then when I’ve watched her compete, watched her come back from having a child (in 2017), I was like, yo, maybe I should have continued for a couple more years. ... She has done so much for the sport herself, and she has shown that hard work and dedication, believing in yourself, is the way to go. I’m proud to have said I’ve known her from the juniors and seen her come up through the ranks and done so greatly. I look forward to seeing her last race, just to cheer her on actually in the stadium live.”
