Usain Bolt’s gold medal at the London Olympics 2012 was one to remember. Notably, ahead of the heats, Usain Bolt and his team trained hard at Birmingham. The entire team was at the University of Birmingham for days before the final race at the Olympics.

The then director of sport at the University, Zena Wooldridge, had once revealed the number of measures they took for the star athlete’s arrival. Not just because of his popularity, but given the then ongoing rivalry between the two teams, they also had to keep the US and the Jamaican teams apart.

In Wooldridge’s account, there were times when decoys were sent out to distract the media from Bolt and his teammates.

The Jamaican team at the University of Birmingham

After the 2008 Olympics, the rivalry between the United States and the Jamaican team intensified. When London was selected to host the 2012 Olympics, the immediate and initial thought was to bring the best teams on board to train. Hence, Team USA was invited to train at the Alexander stadium. Naturally, it was not possible to let the Jamaicans train in the same place.

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Therefore, the University of Birmingham hosted Team Jamaica.

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?Hence the fact that we did the deal for the Jamaicans to come to the university because it meant that you kept the Americans and the Jamaicans as far apart as possible,” revealed Zena.

The entire city council had to be extremely careful to keep both the teams away from each other. Wooldridge expressed how those were some never seen before circumstances.

?It’s a kind of thing that we will never reproduce because it was just a set of very unique circumstances that all came together.?

Another big challenge was also to keep the media away from the star athlete. He was the highlight at the Olympics, and the officials could not afford any hiccups from their end.

Measures taken to host Usain Bolt

Notably, the university team was not aware of Bolt’s arrival until that very day. Regardless, no compromises in service were acceptable. From the food to the clothing, to hospitality, it all had to be perfect for Lightning Bolt.

“He was the big name in the whole of the London 2012 Olympics, so with that came having to manage some risks.”

Zena also recalled one of the days when Bolt wanted to watch a movie. To make this possible, they had to send out multiple decoys so that he would be away from the media. They had to sneak Usain Bolt out when he wanted to be on his own.

Bolt himself thanked the University after his 2012 London win. He felt extremely grateful to the team. Giving them a shout out during an interview, he appreciated them for giving him the opportunity to train at his best.

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