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Usain Bolt Has Never Run A Full Mile, According To His Agent

No, seriously.
Sure, he can sprint and pose, but can Usain Bolt break 5 minutes in the mile?
NurPhoto via Getty Images
Sure, he can sprint and pose, but can Usain Bolt break 5 minutes in the mile?
Jamaica's Usain Bolt is a blur in sprinting events like this one on July 22 in London.
Tom Dulat - British Athletics via Getty Images
Jamaica's Usain Bolt is a blur in sprinting events like this one on July 22 in London.

Usain Bolt has run sprints faster than anyone in the world, and he may do it again in the Rio Olympics. But apparently, he has never gone the extra mile ― or any mile, in fact.

The New Yorker reports that the Jamaican star has, “in fact, never tried running that far.”

Usain has never run a mile,” his agent, Ricky Simms, told the magazine.

Let’s let that sink in for a moment. Not even in grade school? Not even on a dare? Not even to satisfy his own curiosity?

Sure, he can sprint and pose, but can Usain Bolt break 5 minutes in the mile?
NurPhoto via Getty Images
Sure, he can sprint and pose, but can Usain Bolt break 5 minutes in the mile?

The two-time defending Olympic gold medalist in the 100-meter and 200-meter races doesn’t need to run a mile, of course. Sprinters generally hone their craft by running repeated intervals of much shorter distances.

But that doesn’t stop the curious from wondering whether a man of Bolt’s prodigious speed could clock a decent mile. The New Yorker tracked a bit of the guessing as the Games near, but we just can’t get past the fact that Bolt has never put those long legs to the 5,280-foot test.

Maybe when he’s done (perhaps) making history in Rio, he can give it a shot. But then again, why bother?

Here’s a world-record reminder of why Usain Bolt doesn’t need to run a mile, even if we’re curious:

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