Usain Bolt Wins Lifetime Achievement Award at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Ceremony

Usain Bolt, a Jamaican who has won eight Olympic gold medals, will receive the Lifetime Achievement award at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year ceremony. The 36-year-old Bolt, a 19-time global champion and the fastest sprinter in history, retired in August 2017.

At three consecutive Olympic Games—Beijing 2008, London 2012, and Rio 2016—he was named the 100- and 200-meter champion. Bolt, who is regarded as the best sprinter of all time and the first person to win both the 100-meter and 200-meter events at three consecutive Olympics, ran the 100 meters in 9.58 seconds, which stands as the current world record time.

His first global medals, silvers in the 200-meter and 4×100-meter relays, came in Osaka in 2007, a competition Bolt attributes with “opening his eyes” to the dedication needed to succeed. Four years later, in Daegu, a missed start in the 100-meter race served as another lesson for him to be committed to his objectives.

At his last Olympic Games in Rio, the Jamaican won a historic “triple triple” of gold medals, although he has since lost his 2008 4x100m crown as teammate Nesta Carter tested positive for a prohibited substance.

After the 2017 World Championships in London, where he finished his illustrious career with a bronze medal in the men’s 100m, Bolt made the decision to retire.

Billie Jean King, Pele, Bobby Charlton, Tanni Grey-Thompson, David Beckham, Jessica Ennis-Hill, Chris Hoy, and Simone Biles were previous winners of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award.

The BBC Sports Personality of the Year ceremony will take place at MediaCityUK in Salford on Wednesday, December 21.