Bolt laughs off stairs joke and says he is in best shape while hosting Budapest finale
Usain Bolt says he is in the best shape of his life and that talk of him getting out of breath on the stairs was a joke taken out of context.
“I am not running out of breath walking up the stairs,” the Jamaican told reporters in Budapest. He said his much-quoted line from 2025 was twisted in the retelling. He is in Hungary as ambassador and infield host for the World Athletics Ultimate Championship The Guardian.
The new meeting runs from 11 to 13 September in Budapest. It is the first edition of the event, a condensed three-day championship built around head-to-head finals and a $10 million (£7.4 million) prize fund. Bolt has been named the meeting’s ‘Ultimate Legend’ and will work as an infield host throughout, the presenter stationed down by the track among the athletes.
That role puts him close to the current stars. American sprinter Noah Lyles has been announced as an Ultimate Star for the meeting, and Sweden’s pole vaulter Mondo Duplantis was also revealed as an Ultimate Star. Their presence gives the first running of the event its competitive edge.
Bolt was relaxed about his own fitness. He ruptured his Achilles in 2024 and said he no longer runs, focusing instead on gym workouts. No track repeats. No blocks. Just strength work to stay in shape.
It is a long way from the man who still owns the fastest times ever recorded. Bolt won eight Olympic gold medals and 11 world titles. He holds world records of 9.58 seconds in the 100m, 19.19 seconds in the 200m and 36.84 seconds in the 4x100m relay, in which four runners each carry the baton over 100 metres The Guardian.
Last year he also suggested his own generation of sprinters was ‘just more talented’ than today’s athletes. He smiled his way through that comparison again in Budapest, happy to tease the men trying to chase his marks.
Away from the track, Bolt confirmed he proposed to long-term partner Kasi Bennett on his 40th birthday. Bennett is the mother of his three children: Olympia Lightning, Thunder and Saint Leo.
For fans, this means a rare close-up. The fastest man in history, no longer racing, but still at the centre of the stadium, microphone in hand while a new event tries to find its rhythm.
