It’s been six years, 11 months and 29 days since Usain Bolt finished his very last competitive race, when he came in third behind Justin Gatlin at the world championship 100m final in London back in the summer of 2017. But you can still see him round about the sport. He’s there in the boxes listing the world and Olympic records at the top of the official start lists, he’s there again when those same times come up on the digital scoreboards at the finish line to remind you what the people you’re watching are falling short of, he’s there in the montages of great moments that they play on the giant screens before the start of the session.
But most of all, you notice him simply because he’s missing. You wonder whether World Athletics wouldn’t sometimes have preferred it if he stayed that way, given the way he talks about the sport in interviews. “I think the sport now is maybe just missing a superstar. I mean, when I left people were looking for the next person who is going to step up and really shine and stand out. I think that’s what the sport is missing right now,” he said in one last year.
