Talent is never enough: Usain Bolt reveals career turning point and coach Glen Mills advise that redirected him to greatness

Coach Glen Mills and Usain Bolt

Talent is never enough: Usain Bolt reveals career turning point and coach Glen Mills advise that redirected him to greatness

Funmilayo Fameso 15:01 - 31.03.2025

Jamaican track legend Usain Bolt opened up on the life-changing advise coach Glen Mills resonated in him that restructured his career back to greatness.

World's fastest man in history Usain Bolt is unarguably the greatest sprinter to run on earth, having won iconic medals and ran record-breaking times that sealed his legacy in the sporting world.

However, before being the best, the Jamaican legend had to go through a moment of reawakening spearheaded by his coach Glen Mills, despite being very talented as a teenager.

Coach Glen Mills trained Usain Bolt throughout his professional career as a sprinter

In a recent interview that has become an inspirational cut on Instagram, Bolt spoke insightfully on talent and being great, and how he walked the path to leaving a legacy in athletics with the help of coach Mills.

"I didn't understand the concept of being great. You know what I mean because I was young," said the eight-time Olympic gold medallist.

"When I started out, I was 15 years when I won the world juniors. I was really young, I was really talented. So I didn't have to work as hard, it was just talent. So I was winning and winning and winning," he continued.

Bolt further revealed how reality struck when he started losing races after turning professional because he had to face other talented sprinters.

Usain Bolt remains the most dominant sprinter in athletics history

"I remember when I got to the professional level now and I felt that it was just going to be easy and I got unto the stage and I would go to meets and I would lose and I was like this is strange, this is new. So it's something that took me a while to understand," he said.

The turning point came when he started training with coach Mills, who gave him life-changing advise that restructured his career back to greatness.

"When I started working with coach Mills, he kind of sat me down and explained to me that, listen, everybody who's a professional has talent, so it's who works the hardest on their talent that will be the best.

"And that's when I kind of understood that you can't get to the top with just talent alone. You need work, you need sacrifice, you have to be dedicated. And it took me time but I learned along the way and I got better over time."  

Aside from his Olympic gold medals stated above, Bolt was also an eleven-time world champion before his retirement in 2017.

His 100m and 200m world records of 9.58s and 19.19s still stand to date, and he remains the only man in history to have won Olympic 100m and 200m titles at three consecutive Games (2008, 2012, and 2016). He also won two 4 × 100m relay gold medals. 

At World Championships level, the sprint icon won consecutive 100m, 200m, and 4x100m relay gold medals from 2009 to 2015, except for a 100 m false start in 2011, making him the most successful male athlete.

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