10. Usain Bolt
Like Blake, Usain Bolt was encouraged to turn to the track after his speedy approach to the wicket was noticed by his cricket coach at William Knibb Memorial High School in Trelawny. Bolt won his first Champs medal in 2001, taking the 200m, taking silver in 22.04 seconds. Bolt would have to learn to take his talent seriously in that year and it was not a moment too soon as the World Junior Championships was held in Kingston in 2002. There, the gangly 15-year-old announced his presence to the world when he clocked 20.61 seconds to take the 200m title, making him the youngest world junior gold medalist ever.
Since then, winning championship medals and breaking world records has become a regular occurrence. Bolt stunned the world in 2008 at the Beijing Olympics when he clocked 9.69 seconds to shatter the previous world record in the 100m. He would repeat this feat in the 200m and again with his teammates in the 4x100m relay. He dramatically lowered his 100m and 200m records at the World Champs in Berlin the very next year, to 9.58 and 19.19 seconds, respectively. Outside of his shocking disqualification in the 100m finals in Daegu (won by compatriot Blake), Bolt has not lost a race at a major world event since 2008. He is one of two Jamaicans amongst the only eight athletes to have won world championships at all levels (youth, junior and senior) of competition.
