One might think that the moment the professional career of a sportsman is over so is their scope of any further growth. After all, there are no more gold medals to be won. No more world records to be broken. And no more personal bests to beat. Or so one might think. But for 5-time Olympic champion Justin Gatlin, that’s anything but the truth. In fact, he believes there is still much more he can learn.

In his podcast, Ready Set Go, the Athens gold medalist mentions, “I feel like right now I’m still finding myself.” The former world champion also dropped hints about focusing on a coaching career. But he also believes this step can be hampered by his zeal for personal growth. He said, “If I’m finding myself, I can’t give my all to those athletes. I got to make sure that I’m in that mature space to be like, All right, we ready to do this.”

But before making any long-term commitments, Gatlin wants to get his head clear before he can step into the world where he has to guide the athletes. Justin has made it clear he cannot put on the mask and pretend to be the coach, ultimately messing up the athlete’s career. His co-host and fellow pundit Rodney Green was also present to hear his views.

Speaking to the Bahamian sprinter, he continued, “I don’t want to fake it for them and then mess up their career on what they are trying to do.” Justin’s denial of coaching is not new to the track and field fans, as he has previously made his stance clear. On The Powells YouTube channel, alongside former rivals Asafa Powell and Tyson Gay, the olympian revealed why coaching wasn’t just the thing for him. 

“When you look at coaching, your coach is out there, and you spend as much time with them, if not more, than with your family. I thought of it as I gotta be out there as a coach too,’ which is another 20 years in the game—it’s a lot,” he confessed. Having spent 20 years of his life racing, the idea of giving 20 more to the track quite didn’t appeal to the 2017 World Champion. But for someone who has so much difficulty retiring, this shouldn’t be that surprising.

Ferdinand made Justin Realise that he should retire

Ever since the 43-year-old bid his farewell to the sport in 2022, he has been very active on podcasts. You could quite literally find him in many track and field discussions over YouTube sharing his stories. The olympian remembers how he was just overtaken by Ferdinand, citing, “I got a good second boom all of a sudden I see this blur out of my peripheral just riding.”

This was the first time for Justin Gatlin in his two-decade-long career; he took this as the signal that he was done. He said, “I‘ve never seen anybody pass me so fast in my whole career and that was my last race so that was a long time 20 years of I’ve never seen anybody pass me that fast. He just comes and just surges, like soon as we cross the line, I was like, Yep, yep, that’s my last race. I’m retired.”

With this, he shed the final curtain on his illustrious career, which saw him compete across four Olympics and eight World Championships. In those multiple encounters, he built some of the racetrack’s greatest rivalries. From his early races alongside a young Usain Bolt at the 2004 event to beating the likes of Coleman, Bolt, and Yohan Blake years later in 2017.

The legendary sprinter could’ve even made it into the 2021 Olympics had a bad hamstring injury not taken him off the shelf. But that was then; this is now. And after 3 years of retirement, the once fierce speedster is yet to get cold. He still wishes to continue his road to learning more and getting better. But if that will be coaching is yet to be decided.

“If coaching comes, it will have to be later on.” These were Justin Gatlin’s words in the Powell podcast. Right now he is focused on working on himself, spending some time with his family, and maybe staying off the track for a while, and he deserves every ounce of it. After all, he has been a tough competitor to the likes of Usain Bolt. If he ever chooses to come to coaching, what team do you think he is choosing?