Noah Lyles has been making waves in the sprinting world, not just with his incredible speed but also with his showmanship. After winning the 200m at the Racers Grand Prix last spring with a time of 19.67 seconds, Lyles met the legendary Usain Bolt. The Jamaican icon embraced the American and encouraged him, saying, “Keep your same attitude. The sport needs that shit.” But while Lyles has taken that advice as he ran his way to the 100-meter gold at Paris 2024, the fastest man on earth isn’t entirely impressed, as he shared his thoughts.

During a recent appearance on the Ready, Set, Go podcast, Bolt expressed his frustration with the current generation of sprinters.”I think a lot of them don’t understand. I watch my fellow Jamaicans and I watch. I’m like, You guys don’t want it like we used to want it, you know what I mean,” Bolt said. Bolt’s journey began at just 12 years old.

Pablo McNeil and Dwayne Barrett coached him and he finished second in the 2001 William Knibb High School national championships at age 15, running the 200m in 22.04 seconds. From that moment on, his rise was unstoppable.He continued, “Because when I sit and I have conversations, and I watch, and I go to training and observe, I’m like, nah, it’s not the same.”

A six-time individual Olympic gold medalist, Bolt dominated the 100m and 200m events in three consecutive Olympic Games at Beijing 2008, London 2012, and Rio 2016. His world records of 9.58 seconds in the 100m and 19.19 seconds in the 200m, set at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, still stand today. Bolt’s comments also follow his apparent irritation with American sprinter Noah Lyles, whom many consider the new face of men’s sprinting.

Lyles once jokingly said, “Usain Bolt, who?” —a remark that did not sit well with the Jamaican legend. Bolt clearly showed his disdain. Lyles, who secured his place in Olympic history by winning 100m gold at Paris 2024, has always been a showman. But Bolt believes there is a difference between entertainment and true hunger for greatness.

But who will know it better than him? After all, his accolades precede him. But since Bolt retired back in 2017, there has been a void left for the absolute top of the track. And so far, none have come close to what Bolt achieved on the track. But then came Noah Lyles. And for some time it felt as if the track got a new ace. After all, since 2017, Lyles has laid claim to 6 World Championship golds and one Olympic gold.

But while Lyles did walk the talk, Bolt feels as if the sport has lost its edge. In his eyes, the speedsters today lack the hunger and drive that were abundant in his era. And can we really argue? After all, he faced the likes of Justin Gatlin, Yohan Blake, and Christian Coleman, among many more. Yet despite all this, he remains humble to the game. But if his humbleness wasn’t visible during his playing days, it is even more visible as he still remembers the one loss he couldn’t avenge.

Recalling the one competitor he simply couldn’t win against

As Usain Bolt recently appeared on the 

Ready, Set, Go podcast, he made his feelings clear. All these years later, he still regrets losing to Xavier Carter back in his early days. In the podcast, Bolt recalls how, despite his best attempts, he was unable to defeat Carter and ended up losing. When we think about the list of defeated names to his credit, it just shows how much it means to Lightning Bolt.

But despite all the big names he went on to defeat, the young Usain Bolt was much more approachable. Just ask Gatlin, who himself is among the few men who can claim they’ve beat Bolt multiple times. But the loss to Carter dwells especially on Bolt’s mind since he lost to him in a 200-meter sprint back in 2007.

Opening on the loss, Bolt mentions, “But the story about Xavier, bro, it hurt me to the core up to this day because I never got a chance to beat him back. I never got a chance to the core, bro. To this day. I’ll never forget.” But then again, Xavier Carter wasn’t one to sneeze at either. With a time of 19.63 seconds, he was a dominant force in the 200-meter circuit during his peak in 2006.

That year, he ran the second-fastest 200m race in history at the Grand Prix in Lausanne, Switzerland, where Bolt finished third and took home a bronze medal. But Carter’s talent extended beyond the 200m; he dominated the 400m, recording the world’s second-fastest time that year and overpowering a star-studded field. In the 100m, he tied for 17th place with a 10.09s finish, while Bolt was not even on the list.

While record-breaking victories and Olympic gold medals define Bolt’s career, this rare loss to Xavier Carter still lingers in his memory. Despite going on to become the greatest sprinter of all time, Bolt’s inability to avenge this particular defeat remains a source of frustration. It’s a testament to how competitive and driven Bolt was throughout his career. He never forgot the races he didn’t win, even as he dominated the world of sprinting.