Usain Bolt targets 3 Golds in 2016 Rio Olympics

Friday, August 30, 2013

Usain Bolt targets 3 Golds in 2016 Rio Olympics

What’s left for a man who has won three Olympic sprint titles back-to-back? Win all three again, of course.

Usain Bolt said Wednesday is planning to defend his 100, 200 and 4x100 meter relay golds at the Rio de Janeiro Games in 2016.

“To actually go to Rio and win again would be a feat in itself,” said Bolt, speaking ahead of the Weltklasse Diamond League meeting in Zurich.

The Jamaican will run in the 100 meters on Thursday after a world championship sweep of the sprints in Moscow, where he talked of working hard to attain “the greatness thing.”

Most would say he’s achieved that already.

He completed the same triple at the Olympic Games in Beijing and London.

“For me, the key thing is just to go to defend my titles, and that’s my focus,” Bolt said. “It would be the first time anybody has ever won three times in a row.”

Bolt became the most decorated athlete in world championships history this month, with his career tally of eight golds and two silvers lifting him above American great Carl Lewis.

Three more golds for Bolt in Rio would still leave him trailing Lewis’ Olympic track and field record of nine golds and one silver.

“I won’t be adding a fourth event in Rio, for sure,” said the 27-year-old Bolt, whose 34th birthday could fall during the 2020 Summer Games.

Bolt’s news conference was held at FIFA headquarters, across the city from the stadium where he will run Thursday.

Bolt was greeted on arrival by FIFA President Sepp Blatter, and later accepted a blue FIFA football shirt bearing his name and the No. 9.

Blatter joked that nine seconds was probably the limit for Bolt, whose 100 world record set in 2009 stands at 9.58.

Bolt suggested he was capable of running in the 9.70s at Weltklasse, where a warm, still evening is forecast.