Jamaican sprint sensation Usain Bolt has made it clear he’s sticking to his guns with his retirement plan this year.
Bolt, 30, won the prestigious Laureus sportsman of the Year Award during the ceremony in Monaco on Tuesday night, and said he’s accomplished everything he wants to in athletics, Mirror writes.
“I’ve just done everything I wanted to do in the sport,” Bolt said after receiving the gong.
The sprint icon, whose triple-triple feat at the Rio 2016 Olympics was marred by the cancellation of Jamaica’s 4x100m relay gold in Beijing 2008, will bring the curtain down on his incredible career after the World Championships in London.
“I asked Michael Johnson the same question, ‘why did you retire when you were on top?’. He said the same – he had done everything he had wanted to do in athletics so there was no reason to stay in the sport. Now I understand what he means.”
He was named sportsman of the year ahead of back-to-back Olympic 5,000 and 10,000 metres gold medal winner Mo Farah, tennis’s world No 1 Andy Murray, Ballon d’Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo and basketballers Stephen Curry and LeBron James.
Other winners are four-time Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast Simon Biles, who was named sportswoman of the year, Leicester City who won the spirit of sport award while Chicago Cubs were team of the year for breaking their 108-year-old Major League Baseball World Series jinx.
