Athletics saviour Usain Bolt signs off from Olympics after ninth gold medal

USAIN Bolt signed off with a kiss, but the Olympic movement should be doing everything possible to twist his arm into thinking about going around again.

Usain Bolt has achieved the triple treble.

THE sign-off wasn’t the signature Lightning Bolt pose. Instead Usain Bolt walked over to the finish line, knelt down on his hands and knees in lane four and kissed the track.

He then pointed to the sky and bid farewell to the Olympics forever.

The world’s greatest athlete had just won his ninth career gold medal in the 4x100m relay after a typical Bolt blitz over the final stages to get Jamaica the victory.

While he has indicated he would compete at next year’s world championships in London, sadly this is the end of the road on the biggest stage in world sport.

Bolt turns 30 on Sunday. His biggest rival, Justin Gatlin, who finished second to him in the 100m final, is 34.

The greatest swimmer of all-time, Michael Phelps, came out of retirement and returned to his best in Rio. Can Bolt do the same in Tokyo 2020?

“I think swimming and track and field are totally different so for me when I retire that will be totally it,” Bolt said.

Usain Bolt celebrates winning the 4x100m relay final to claim his third gold medal of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

The Olympic movement should be doing everything possible to twist his arm because the thought of a Games without him is scary.

And that is not just for track and field because the Jamaican transcends that, he is a global superstar who orbits in the same hemisphere as sporting gods such as Muhammad Ali, Pele and Michael Jordan.

Bolt is the glue that has been keeping his sport together.

Athletics is on its knees with the Russian doping crisis which is the latest in a string of embarrassing scandals.

Imagine if Bolt wasn’t around to divert the focus. Imagine if a two-time cheat like Gatlin was the Olympic champion.

They are all scenarios that send a shiver down all sports fans.

Even his heir apparent, 21-year-old Canadian Andre de Grasse, feels sadness even though there are obvious benefits for him when the greatest of all time rides off into the sunset.

“(I feel) a little bit of both,” he said.

“Definitely I love competing against him, it’s an honour to be a part of history, of what he’s accomplished in his career … but overall, if his time is up, I guess a new person has to come in there.”

Game over as Nickel Ashmeade passes the baton to Usain Bolt.

Bolt’s teammate Yohan Blake, who took the 2011 100m world title after his friend false-started in the final, which was the only blemish of his career, doesn’t want him to go anywhere.

“Usain needs to be immortal and he is immortal. I will encourage him to come back for 2020,” Blake said.

It was the way he felt in the 200m on Thursday night where he was sluggish — that is Bolt talk given he was still metres clear of his opponents — down the straight to clock the disappointing time of 19.78sec which confirmed retirement plans.

There was just no stopping Jamaica in the 4x100m relay.

He says it was his body telling him it was time to pack it in. He even suggested it could have been the last time he raced over 200m which has always been his favourite event.

After setting world and Olympic records in Beijing, Bolt lowered the world mark in both events 12 months later at the Berlin world championships.

The best of Bolt in Rio

VIEW GALLERY

But since then all of his gold medals have come in slower times.

He was on a mission in Rio to confirm his status.

“There you go. I’m the greatest,” Bolt said after the relay victory.

“The pressure was real. But I look at it as an accomplishment … I am proud of myself.

“I’m just relieved. It’s unreal, I didn’t know this was all going to happen to me.

“And I told the guys that if this didn’t come together for me I was going to beat them up! I’m the greatest.”

There is no argument there but could he be even greater in Tokyo?