By: Crisan Evans
Usain Bolt, retired Jamaican athlete, entrepreneur and to date, the fastest man in the world is undoubtedly one of the most phenomenal person one could ever come across. During his time on the tracks, he reaped from his hard work and dedication, nine gold medals and to this day holds a world record in races 100m at 9.58, and 200 m at 9.19 seconds. The superstar and businessman was recently honoured the International Humanitarian Award in New York for his achievements and work ethics at the American Friends of Jamaica (AFJ).
After investing a lot of work into his career and achieving the title of the “world’s fastest man”, it was expected that the sprinter would have embarked on a lifelong holiday enjoying the riches from his achievements, but, being the hardworking and “success-craving” man he is, the “track rocket” embarked on yet another path in the sporting industry – football. The then 31 years old who has always had a passion for the sport dreamed of playing on the Manchester United team. He had his mind set on making that dream a reality. The sprinter spent his time not only concentrating on entrepreneurial duties but also training and playing with clubs such as Borussia Dortmund and Norweigian side Stromsgodset and Central Coast Mariners of Australia’s A-League. After joining and playing with these and many other clubs the sprinter eventually decided to retire completely from the sporting industry and has since then been focusing on what he calls “businesses’’.
“I’m just doing many different things – the sports life is over, so I’m now moving into different businesses. I have a lot of things in the pipeline, so as I say, I’m just dabbling in everything and trying to be a businessman now,” said Bolt.
Bolt is now involved in real estate and in 2018 got involved in the Business Process Outsourcing centre (BPO) in Half-Way Tree which was expected to house about 1200 employees. He is also the owner of the property on which the centre is built. This is, however, not the only business the sprint king has been involved in as he is also involved in the Usain Bolt’s Tracks and Record restaurant and sports bar franchise.
He also launched a company called Champion Shave which sells 6-blade razor at discounted prices in 2016 and has endorsed deals with several brands. These include PUMA, Nissan, Hublot, Virgin Media, Japan’s All Nippon airway, Enertor, Australia’s Optus, Digicel and the most recent Xoom.com.
