Usain Bolt has finally received a heartfelt apology from his former sprinting rival after an infamous spitting incident.
Bolt joined the latest episode of the Ready Set Go podcast alongside Justin Gatlin and Rodney Green, where the shadows of past confrontations emerged during their conversation.
Gatlin’s attempt to rattle Bolt during the early stages of his career was particularly surprising, involving a brazen act of spitting across Bolt’s lane.
Bolt previously explained: “I remember the first time I competed with Justin, he spat across my lane, the first time I met him.
“We were in, I think it was Zagreb, and we were competing.
“You know when you warm up and you’re running out of your blocks? I was walking back and he was walking towards me, and he kind of spat across the lane in front of me.”
However, Bolt, famed for his easygoing demeanour on the track, shared that he remained entirely unfazed by Gatlin’s attempts at intimidation.
Reflecting on his response, the 38-year-old chuckled: “I laughed, because I knew what he was trying to do, but for me, it doesn’t matter.”
Now, after all these years, the two have come together to unpack the incident.
Rodney Green asked Bolt: “Is it true? Did he spit in your lane?”
“I don’t even know if I did!” Justin said.
“It was our first race together and I never forgot it,” Bolt said.
“I understood why. Remember, Justin was in the era of Maurice Green and all these guys. That’s what he is used to. That’s the mentality. So when you come back and you see these guys chilling, you won’t want to be anybody’s friend.
“For me, it was funny. Because I understood in track and field how it is. I know he’s not going to come back and start running fast; it’s going to take him a while to get going.
“I wasn’t worried. We were running the first race in Zagreb and I’ll never forget; I ran, and he’s coming back and he’s walking, he spat across my lane, and I looked up and I smiled because I understood he was just trying to intimidate me, but I wasn’t worried,” Bolt said with a laugh.
“So you did spit in this man’s lane! Did you apologise for spitting in his lane?” Green said, turning to Justin.
“I apologise,” Justin said, to which Green and Bolt laughed.
Gatlin explained: “The thing is, for me, I’m so focused. I don’t even think in that moment I was thinking about doing those little petty trickery things, you know what I’m saying? I’m thinking, I got allergies.”
“I’m constantly trying to get my mouth clear so I can go run with my sinuses. It was never an ‘F Usain Bolt’ sort of thing. It was the fact I think I was just trying to focus on getting ready for my race. But I can say now that I helped contribute to the greatness (of Bolt),” Justin joked.
“When I saw it in the documentary, everybody always came back to me and said, how dare you do that to him, I’m like bro, I didn’t do anything.”
Bolt smiled and then said: “Relax people, relax.”
“Let me say something, bro. I say this many times; if you see my interviews, I always say this: you’re one of the greatest people I have ever competed with. My coach told me to listen, one guy is going to show up, and it’s going to be Justin. That’s the respect my coach has for you.”
With Gatlin as a five-time Olympic medallist, including the 100m gold at Athens 2004, his attempts to intimidate the young Bolt were telling of the remarkable potential that Bolt would later unleash on the global stage.
The Jamaican superstar catapulted to fame at the 2008 Beijing Games, where he seized the first of his 100m and 200m titles, setting fresh world records in both events.
Though Gatlin recognised Bolt’s immense talent during that first encounter, he could do little to impede his meteoric rise thereafter.
After a four-year ban from athletics stemming from a positive doping test in 2006, Gatlin returned but could never quite surpass his rival.
Bolt remarkably duplicated his Beijing triumphs at London 2012 and Rio 2016, while Gatlin also graced the 100m podium on both occasions, claiming bronze in London and silver in Rio.
