Dwight Thomas, Michael Frater, Kemba Nelson, and Veronica Campbell-Brown all have one thing in common. That is, they are all Jamaican sprinters. But they all chose to attend college in the USA. After all, the American system gives many perks and lucrative scholarships to its athletes. But there was one stalwart who never took that path. Yet one might say that despite this, he was by far the most talented. With 8 golds, Usain Bolt is an absolute legend. But he isn’t happy at all with the US.

But Bolt ended up staying in Jamaica. And the reasons were very personal. It was because of the climate and, more importantly, he wanted to stay close to his mother. But still, it was facilitated by the Jamaican infrastructure. And, looking back now, the Olympian must count his blessings he stayed back. He got the best guidance and mentorship.

Moreover, he has now realized that there was a systemic issue for which the Jamaicans choosing American colleges back then failed to realize their potential and athletic dreams. The only man to win gold in 3 consecutive Olympics in the 100m and 200m sprint was the guest on the February 27 episode of the ‘Ready Set Go’ podcast.

When asked by host US sprinter Rodney Green about which college Bolt would have chosen in the US, the Jamaican gave his viewpoint about how the NCAA system was not exactly favorable for developing Jamaican talent: “The college system wasn’t good for Jamaicans.”Continuing, Usain said, “I think if you, if you got a scholarship… a lot of these schools ran you hard. I think if you watch a lot of these athletes that went to college, they came Pro and it wasn’t the same.”

Maybe he is talking about Remona Burchell, the 2-time NCAA indoor champion in 60 meters and 2014 NCAA outdoor Champion in 100 meters. She had dominated the college circuit, winning 60m, 100m, and 4×100m distances. She ran the 60-meter dash in a college-record 7.08 seconds to win the finals of the 2015 SEC Championship.

But as far as international accolades are concerned, she didn’t get her first major triumph until the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Usain Bolt thinks the NCAA scholarship ties the hands of the sprinters who are now at the mercy of the schedule and demands of the college: “When you have a scholarship, you just got to go run all the time… so you run your body so hard and then you got to try to go into the championship now.”

It just becomes taxing for a budding sprinter, both physically and mentally. The victim of such excruciating conditions was Akeem Bloomfield. The Jamaican retired at the age of 27, despite starting with a promising career. He became the first Jamaican schoolboy to finish a 400-meter race under 45.00 seconds.

He was also the second-fastest Jamaican man in the outdoor 400m distance, running a 43.94 seconds in 2018. However, injuries piled up for the young man and cut his career short. Usain mentioned one Jamaican who managed to bypass the NCAA system—the 3-time Olympics gold winner Veronica Campbell-Brown.

Usain also said why: “Veronica made it out because Veronica got a contract from Adidas while she was in college, so she could pick and choose where she was going to compete.”This freedom is so important for the Jamaican sprinters to prolong their careers and have a last impact in the international competitions. Without that, it was just kids going into the US setup with a dream and getting lost.

As Usain says, “And that’s crazy. I think that messed up a lot of Jamaicans that went over there, you know what I mean.” Usain, in fact, thanked his fellow Jamaican Asafa Powell, whose record-breaking win helped change the mindset that Jamaicans don’t have to go to the USA to get better.

Bolt went, “I was lucky that just then Asafa, I think Asafa really helped that because Asafa started training in Jamaica with Frano (Stephen Francis) and he broke the world record so they were like, ‘oh, we can stay.’” Bolt, in case you don’t know, didn’t attend college. He went straight pro after school. And he did all that staying in his homeland. But like he said, there was evidence that he could achieve his dreams staying in Jamaica.

Everything a young Usain needed in Jamaica

In his autobiography, Usain Bolt’s ‘Faster than Lightning,’ he talks about his athletic journey right from his childhood. He was always a talented runner, and William Knibb Memorial High School spotted that. Talking about his school, Bolt said, “William Knibb was a great place, a nice school with a fantastic sporting history. One of their former students, Michael Green, had competed in the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, where he’d finished seventh place in the 100 metres.”

Elaborating, Bolt continued, “In Jamaican high schools, track and field was huge. The passion for athletics was as big as it is for football in English schools, or the US colleges’ love for American football and basketball.” No wonder they have produced sprinters like Usain, Asafa, Yohan Blake, Veronica Campbell-Brown, Dwight Thomas, and so many more. The Jamaican pipeline of sprinters alone is endless.

The 2008 Beijing Gold Medalist also talked about how he slowly went up the ranks to get national recognition. As the speedster narrated, “I was on the bottom rung of that ladder, but William Knibb could tell that I carried the potential to compete in some of the bigger meets in the coming years.” At William Knibb, he won his first medal—a silver—in the high school championships in 2001.

Then, Usain Bolt became the youngest male to win a gold medal at the 2002 World Junior Championships. Mind you, he was 15 at the time. In 2002 only, Bolt won gold in the 200m and 400m races with times of 20.61 seconds and 47.12 seconds, respectively, in the Central American and Caribbean Junior Championships. The rest, as you know, is history.