GOATnotes
Faster than Lightning: My Autobiography
By Usain Bolt ∙ HarperSport © 2013∙ 320 pages
Welcome to GOATnotes. Where we read the best books written by athletes and coaches and provide our version of a hat trick. First, we have some fun alongside our GOAT with a random tidbit we found interesting or amusing from the book. Second, we feature an idea from the text to provide a nugget of mindset wisdom straight from the GOAT’s mouth. Third, is the mindset challenge where we triple dog dare you to apply the featured idea to your mindset, starting today.
In this GOATnote we are covering the book Faster than Lightning: My Autobiography, written by Usain Bolt
Let’s get things started with an introduction to Usain Bolt and summary of the book from the inside flap of the front cover.
Usain Bolt was born to be a global phenomenon, The Fastest Man on Earth and an all-conquering sporting icon for his generation.
A kid raised in a remote Jamaican village, his talent first exploded onto the track-and-field scene as a teenager when he broke the junior world record in 2004. Bolt’s rivals have since fallen like dominoes and he has raced his way to superstardom, winning six Olympic gold medals and crushing world records in the 100-, 200- and 4×100-metre events. His status as the quickest man in history is undisputed.
In Faster than Lightning, his first full-length autobiography, Bolt reveals the real story behind his Olympic glory and the challenges faced throughout an incredible life. His early career was nearly derailed by an unusual back condition, and a car accident nearly wiped him out for good in 2009, when he was already the most famous sports star on the planet. Along the way there have been crazy headlines and incredible adventures, all fuelled by an unstoppable charge for gold medals.
Full of Usain’s energy, swagger and charisma, Faster than Lightning brings this legendary athlete bursting to life on the page.
In pure GOATnotes fashion, it is time to have some fun alongside the GOAT. We love to use our obscure eye to find a random tidbit from the book that is interesting or amusing about our beloved GOAT. We want to celebrate one of Usain Bolt’s lesser known and unofficial achievements involving chicken nuggets. This story from Chapter 9: “Go Time” says it all, and takes place at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing China:
Instead, I made three visits to the Village restaurant every day. I tried a little bit of chicken here, a bit of noodles there, but I didn’t like a lot of it. I’m a Jamaican, I loved my jerk pork, rice, yam and dumplings. Sweet and sour chicken did not cut it for me. Some of the local food had too much flavour, some of it had no flavour at all, and I had worry about all of it. The first few days were a struggle.
‘Forget this,’ I thought one morning, as I looked at yet another serving bowl of brightly coloured food. ‘I’m getting some chicken nuggets.’
At first I ate a box of 20 for lunch, then another for dinner. The next day I had two boxes for breakfast, one for lunch and then another couple in the evening. I even grabbed some fries and an apple pie to go along with it. When I got hungry at 3 a.m. that night, I woke my room-mate, the decathlete Maurice Smith, and the pair of us went out for another box.
There’s an assumption that junk food isn’t available in an Olympic complex, that we all eat super-healthy meals, but that couldn’t have been further from the truth. There were chain restaurants everywhere in Beijing, mainly so all the workers could eat (not just the athletes), and by the following lunchtime, when I’d started my third box of the day, my team-mates were pointing and laughing. They couldn’t believe how much deep-fried chicken I was putting away, but the 100 metres hurdler Brigitte Foster-Hylton had seen enough and decided to make a stand.
‘Usain, you cannot eat so many nuggets!’ she yelled. ‘Eat some vegetables, man. You’re gonna make yourself ill.’
I pulled a face, I was fussy. ‘Ugh, I don’t know …’
Brigitte grabbed me. She led my ass around the village restaurant and picked out all kinds of greens and vegetables for me to try, but none of them tasted any good. My attitude must have been so frustrating because, out of desperation, she then handed me a white plastic sachet of Thousand Island dressing. Wow, when I poured it on to my salad for the first time, the food came to life with flavour. I drenched it in the stuff, and from then on, I was able to mix Brigitte’s greens with a box or two of nuggets. It was a healthy hit with every meal.
There was some scary maths at work, though. On average, I devoured around 100 nuggets every 24 hours. I was there for 10 days, which meant that by the time the Games ended, I must have eaten around 1,000 chunks of chicken. Man, I should have got a gold medal for all that chowing down.
Three gold medals and three world records on the track, and all of them fueled by chicken nuggets. So we agree with you Bolt, you should have received a fourth gold medal for your chicken nugget consumption!
After spending some time with this book, we decided the one idea we wanted to feature is how Usain Bolt was relaxed and having fun prior to races. This was a common theme to Bolt’s success that not only stood out in the book but was apparent to all who watched the icon. This mindset came natural to Bolt because it was part of who he was deep down in the DNA of his personality. Nevertheless, he had to continually remind himself to be true to his personality and his relaxed and fun mindset because it allowed him to perform at his best.
At the age of 14, Bolt’s relaxed and fun mindset was already producing success and is nicely summarized in Chapter 4: “Where Mere Mortals Quiver, the Superstar Becomes Excited by The Big Moment”:
I stepped up again and again. Junior rivals fell like dominoes, and after Keith Spence I hit a winning streak at Jamaica’s regional level – I was hot. But despite my successes, track and field just seemed like a whole load of fun to me, nothing more.
That laid-back way of thinking was the perfect mindset for an athlete: I was relaxed before every race, I felt chilled about my performances; I didn’t get freaked out by tough events where the field was seriously strong. And I definitely didn’t stress about racing, not like some of the other kids did. They got nervous before their starts, they obsessed about smashing their personal bests. I had a champion’s confidence because I was so relaxed.
As noted in Chapter 9: “Go Time”, at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Bolt was relaxed and joking around before winning gold and breaking the 100m world record:
I was chilled. Inside the call room, I cracked jokes and tried to make the other Caribbean dudes happy. My bounce was seriously high. Coach gave me one last pat on the back to set me going, but I was so hyped up that I decided to fool around one last time. A camera was trained on my face, the images were being beamed around the world and on to a huge TV screen in the arena. As his palm landed squarely on my shoulder blades, I threw myself forward with a scream, falling to the floor, my face screwed up in mock agony. The camera zoomed in on me. To the watching world Coach had injured the 100 metres world record holder during the build-up to the biggest sporting event on earth.
When I glanced up, I could see that he was pissed, and moments later his phone buzzed. It was a text from a friend in the crowd. They had seen the footage on the big screen in the stadium and were freaking out.
‘WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO USAIN BOLT?!’ it read.
I couldn’t stop myself from laughing, I was so relaxed. My mindset was perfect.
Once again, prior to winning gold and breaking the 100m world record at the 2009 Berlin World Championships, Bolt was relaxed and having fun. In Chapter 12: “The Message” Bolt states:
Despite the scale of the competition, I was chilled. I even started joking with the Antigua and Barbuda runner Daniel Bailey. The pair of us were laughing and pulling dance moves. We had competed together in every heat of the World Championships so far, and along the way we’d become wrapped up in a running joke about who could get the fastest start with each gun.
A few paragraphs later, Bolt continues:
I didn’t want to lose a race to disqualification, not when my number one status was up for grabs. I took Bailey to one side.
‘Yo, please let’s forget this starter thing,’ I said. ‘I just want to execute. When we start putting pressure on each other, we always do dumb stuff …’
He nodded. Bailey understood me more than most runners – we had become friends since he had started training at the Racers camp, and he knew that I liked to fool around before a race. It helped me to relax. He also knew the stakes were a little higher for me that night, but that still didn’t stop us from dancing around, busting out some dancehall moves. I looked across the lanes and smiled. Tyson’s face was a picture of intense concentration. He had to be thinking, ‘What’s wrong with these dudes? This is a World Championships final, and they’re playing and joking?’
It is now storytime so we can bring the featured idea to life. Let’s set the stage. It is the 2011 World Championships in Daegu, South Korea. In what Bolt refers to as the lowest point of his career, he was disqualified after a false start in the 100m final. Understandably, Bolt’s mindset was off after this incident, and he would need to reset and get back to his default of being relaxed and having fun. Let’s pick up the story in Chapter 13: “A Flash of Doubt, a Lifetime of Regret” right after Bolt’s disqualification:
The start was reset, and as I watched from the sidelines, I knew Blake was going to take the gold. Now I was out, there was nobody in the field better than him. The gun popped, and as I followed the action down the track, I burned with anger; but I applauded him as he came in first place, because I was genuinely happy for him. I knew how hard that kid had worked at Racers for his first taste of glory. The fall-out, when it hit me, was hard. I walked away from the crowds and went through all the reasons for my misjudgement. I hadn’t been myself. The doubt that had trailed my injuries had messed with my thinking; I’d obsessed about the start. I had put too much pressure on my performance.
As the night wore on and I relaxed in the Village, I heard all kinds of stupid theories about why I had blown it. Everybody had an opinion.
A few paragraphs later, Bolt continues:
Coach didn’t say a word to me about the false start. He still hasn’t, even to this day. It was the lowest point in my track and field career and he’s never mentioned it to me since, not even in a playful way. Maybe because he knew it had hurt me so bad. I guess he’s trusted me to handle the situation well enough on my own.
In the days after my disqualification, it was an effort to get myself together. I played video games with the Jamaican team, Blake included. I watched a Manchester United game on the internet. Despite a full day of rest, my energy was low. Mom and Pops had come over from Jamaica to watch me compete. I met with them one evening and ran a few jokes because I knew I would have to lift myself out of the slump for the 200 metres final. But I was sick of people asking me over and over, ‘What are you gonna do about your start in the next race?’
I truthfully didn’t know, but I had to shake the smoke of worry that had come over me. Thankfully, the boost, when it arrived, happened on the track, and when I walked out of the tunnel to a huge roar from the crowd for the 200 metres final my mind was buzzing.
‘I really need to make a statement right now,’ I thought. ‘But I’m not in the best shape – what’s gonna happen?’
Then I saw some kids in the crowd. They were waving to me, smiling and laughing. I went over to say hello and as we goofed around, the reality of my situation dropped with me.
‘You know what? To hell with this stressing!’ I thought. ‘I’m supposed to be having fun. Being relaxed in the past is what made me a champ, like in the World Juniors. So stop worrying and be yourself.’
Almost instantly, I became happier. I had less worry, more bounce. The weight was gone from my shoulders. Those kids had reminded me of what I was all about; I remembered putting my spikes on the wrong foot in 2002 and still winning. I was a champ, and when I came out of the blocks on point, I ran hard. I’d been placed in lane three, which was quite close to the curve, and I could feel the muscles in my back tightening as I powered around the corner. But that wasn’t enough to slow me down. By the time I’d made it home I was in first place, finishing in 19.40 seconds. I later helped the 4×100 metres relay team smash the world record again with a time of 37.04 seconds. Talk about lifting myself out of trouble.
As customary with every GOATnote, it is time for your mindset challenge. What is one thing you can do to have a more relaxed and fun mindset prior to competition? Take a moment to think about it. What is one thing you can do to have a more relaxed and fun mindset prior to competition? Got it…great! Now let’s get started on that…TODAY!
This concludes the GOATnote on Faster than Lightning: My Autobiography. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.
P.S. Let’s get to work on being more relaxed and having more fun prior to a competition….starting TODAY!