They brought home gold to their respective countries, but both these track stars, at different times in their lives, overcame setbacks to go on to victory. Ola Agboola looks behind the smiles and medals of two Olympic champions.

At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Usain Bolt, a little-known Jamaican, became the first man to win three events in a single Olympics since Carl Lewis in 1984, not to mention beating the 1996 record for the 100m race.

For England, Christine Ohuruogu, a British athlete of Nigerian heritage, became Britain’s first and only track and field Olympic champion of the 2008 Games and the first British female Olympic champion of the 400m.

They both sprinted into the pages of worldwide history books and paved the way for other young athletes to shine in 2012.

However, all was not plain sailing for Christine. Previous to the 2008 event, she had to fight a one-year ban due to missing three drug tests.

The British Olympic Association also tried to ban her from competing in any future Olympic Games for GB, but the ardent Christian appealed against the decision, stating that she would leave the country to compete in the Olympic Games abroad if her appeal was rejected.

Athletes are tested on a random basis without adequate notice, so Christine did not miss the drug tests for fear of them being found positive, but merely because she was not in the right place at the right time.

Competing against Christina was Yulia Guschina (Russia), Shericka Williams (Jamaica) and Sanya Richards, once acknowledged as the fastest 400m runner of the USA. Christina, the 50th gold medallist for Great Britain in the 400 metres, came through triumphant.

Usain Bolt also encountered complications which prevented him from competing in World Junior Championship in 2004 and, due to a leg injury, was eliminated in the first round of the 200m with a disappointing finishing time of 20.05 seconds, but that didn't seem to bother Usain and, instead, he focused on achieving a fitter body for up-and-coming events.

Usain, who celebrated his 22nd birthday during the Olympics, grew up with his parents - owners of a local grocery store - a brother and a sister.

He played football and cricket as a youngster and, ironically, when his cricket coach noticed his speed on the field, Usain was encouraged to focus on athletics.

He was coached by two former 100m Olympic athletes whilst attending Waldensia Primary School, where he was titled the fastest boy in school. He walked away in his first annual high school championship silver medal in 2001 with an impressive time of 22.04 in the 200m.

PJ Patterson (Prime Minister at the time) recognised Usain's speed and arranged for him to train with Jamaica's Amateur Athletic Association (JAAA) at the University of Technology.  

Aged fifteen, Usain had grown to a height of 6ft 5in, which made him physically stand out from his peers, obliterating nearly every sprinter’s record-breaking time with ease.

In nearly every race Usain competed in, he beat the record time by seconds. By the time he turned sixteen, he had reached times that Michael Johnson didn't hit until he was twenty.

American colleges offered Usain track scholarships but he proudly refused them, stating that he, "wanted to continue training in his homeland."

Usain follows a long list of champions who once held his record, including Donovan Bailey, a former Jamaican-born Canadian world champion whose time of 9.84s in the100m race in Atlanta in 1996 was sliced by Usain’s by 0.15s.

Bailey, a five-time world and Olympic champion, once held the title of the world’s fastest man, defeating Michael Johnson’s bid to determine just that. He was also the second man to hold all major titles in the 100m simultaneously after Carl Lewis. 

Now thirty-eight, Bailey’s career ended when he ruptured his Achilles tendon in 1998.

In short, Usain Bolt has actually managed to beat the world record with a finish time of 9.69s for the 100m, 19.3s for the 200m and 37.10s for the 4x100m.

An amusing observation was noted that, whilst approaching the finish line, Usain had repeatedly slapped his chest in a celebratory way and even attempted to tie his shoelace before touching the line.

By Ola Agboola

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