Usain Bolt, the two-time defending Olympic champion in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m, is considering changing his profession to soccer or cricket after the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Ricky Simms, Bolt’s agent, even hinted that the 26-year-old Jamaican would consider both sports as a post career after retiring from track and field.
“He may try his hand at cricket or football (soccer) when he retires from running but that would be after 2016,” Simms told BBC Sport.
Bolt jumped out to an early post career start after holding talks with Australia’s Melbourne Stars, a cricket team, with cricket legend Shane Warne serving as their captain.
During the summer Warne called Bolt out after watching him defend his crowns at the 2012 London Olympics to possibly consider the game of cricket and appear in this year’s Big Bash Twenty20 League Tournament.
Bolt responded at the time by saying he would “definitely” love to be a part of the Australian tournament, which led Warne to start a campaign through Twitter to bring the sprinter to the tournament.
With the tournament set to begin on Dec. 7 and end on Jan. 9 of next year, Australian wicketkeeper Ian Healy tweeted Friday that a deal between the Stars and Bolt was only “hours away”.
Simms quickly dismissed Healy’s tweet.
“I met with the Melbourne Stars in October and told them Usain is not available to play cricket this year,” he said.
Jess Cook, the Melbourne Stars media manager, confirmed that extensive discussions were held with Bolt’s representatives over the summer, but a deal could not be reached due to his training schedule for the World Championships.
Despite not having the star this year, Cook remained optimistic for their chances to possibly get Bolt next summer.
“We will remain close to Bolt and explore it again next season,” she told BBC Sport.
Bolt’s aspiration of playing cricket is a distant second to his first love, which is soccer. He has made it clear that he loves the sport. He was even a special guest of Manchester United at the 2011 Champions League final in London.
“I always wanted to try to play soccer,” he said in October. “Maybe at the end of my career. It would be something that I would try.”
For now Bolt has another four years before he determines which post career profession he would like to pursue, but reclaiming his 100m title from fellow Jamaican Yohan Blake at the World Championships remains his top priority
