Do we like Usain Bolt?
Our score: 8 out of 10. No harmful words or company turned up, and there's steady charity work, but the record on LGBTQ+ issues is thin, so it stops short of a 9.
Bolt is the sprinter who made the 100m and 200m look easy. World Athletics counts 19 senior global titles and multiple world records, and his 9.58 in the 100m from 2009 still stands. These days he's an ambassador type, named the first and only Ultimate Legend for the new World Athletics Ultimate Championship.
His biggest career blow came off the track. When a Beijing 2008 relay teammate's retested sample showed a banned stimulant, the IOC wiped out the whole team's relay gold and Bolt had to hand his back. He called it rough and said he wasn't happy, but shrugged it off as “just one of those things that happen in life.” No bitterness, no blame-throwing.
The money saga is the other big story, and he's the victim in it. Bolt reportedly lost about US$12 million in an alleged multibillion-dollar fraud at the Jamaican investment firm SSL. In 2025 he said he'd waited two years and that only the government could fix it. SSL has promised partial payouts to victims, and full justice looked unresolved at last report.
On the harm check, we found nothing nasty from him about LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants or the planet, and no conspiracy-theory slide. We also found no co-stars or producers pulling him towards that crowd. Honest gap: we couldn't open his old comments on LGBTQ+ issues, so this is a pass on what we could read, not a deep dive. In 2016 he told GQ the British press paints him as a womaniser. He said people shouldn't judge one culture by another's standards, which some readers will find a bit convenient.
The Kerley stoush is mild. The Enhanced Games allow performance-enhancing drugs, and Kerley, who has said he didn't use banned substances, predicted Bolt's record would be “destroyed.” Instead he ran 9.97, well short of 9.58. Bolt's reply was a few cheeky words on X, which is about as spicy as he gets.
The good stuff is steady rather than splashy. His foundation, with another foundation, gave nearly a million Jamaican dollars' worth of gear, food and gifts to a St James home caring for children and young adults with severe disabilities. Those at the home said the foundations have supported them over the years. He also jokes about a 2028 comeback, saying he'd “be ready” if Jamaica's cricket team called.