Linford Christie wins 100m Gold - Barcelona 1992 Olympics - YouTube Linford Christie wins 100m Gold - Barcelona 1992 Olympics Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Uploaded on Oct 31, 2011 Click here for all Olympic highlights and let the Games never end: Linford Christie was born in Saint Andrew, Jamaica and brought up by his grandmother until the age of seven when he followed his parents in emigrating to England. Coming out of the Barcelona 100m final starting blocks at the age of 32, Christie pulled away from a 'who's who' of famous sprinting names to claim his first Olympic title in a time of 9.96.

Category 50 stunning Olympic moments No36: Linford Christie wins gold in 1992 | Rob Bagchi | Sport | The Guardian 50 stunning Olympic moments 50 stunning Olympic moments No36: Linford Christie wins gold in 1992 The Great Britain team captain went one better than his silver at Seoul 1988 when at the age of 32 he became the oldest person to capture 100m Olympic gold and only the third Briton Great Britain's Linford Christie takes gold in the 100 metres at Barcelona in 1992, at 32 the oldest person ever to do so. Photograph: BTS/Popperfoto Tuesday 5 June 2012 07.20 EDT First published on Tuesday 5 June 2012 07.20 EDT Share on Messenger Close The two pitfalls confronting considerations of Linford Christie’s victory in the 100m at the Barcelona Games in 1992 are cynicism and naivety.

How much more straightforward the assignment would be were it not for Christie’s positive test for nandrolone in 1999 and subsequent two-year ban from athletics? Ten to watch: meet Team GB's sporting superheroes Read more He has always maintained his innocence of doping and last year insisted in an interview with the Independent on Sunday’s Alan Hubbard that his sample had been contaminated. Yet whether you find his defence plausible or not – or similar arguments about tainted nutritional supplements a number of high-profile runners that year, including Merlene Ottey, Dieter Baumann, Mark Richardson and Dougie Walker, say they took in ignorance – it is impossible to overlook two facts: his urine sample was found to contain almost 100 times the legal limit of nandrolone metabolites and that the International Association of Athletics Federations overruled UK Athletics’ not guilty verdict and suspended Christie. Suspicion, once raised, is inextinguishable.

And because of what happened at the Seoul Games in 1988 – when he tested positive for pseudoephedrine after a 200m heat but was allowed to keep his 100m silver medal on an 11-10 vote by the disciplinary committee which gave him the benefit of the doubt that the substance had been unwittingly imbibed when drinking ginseng tea – his critics’ mistrust will never be assuaged. But for all the conjecture, no one has the proof or right to revoke his Olympic gold nor any of the numerous other medals in European, Commonwealth and World competition. What cannot be denied either is that for anyone who witnessed his performance in Montjuïc that glorious August night in 1992, Christie’s triumph truly was a stunning Olympic moment. A year before the Games, at the world championships in Tokyo, Christie finished fourth in the 100m final behind the double Olympic champion Carl Lewis , Leroy Burrell and Dennis Mitchell. Lewis broke the world record in 9.86sec, shaving 0.04 off the benchmark set by Burrell two months earlier and the men in second and third also established new personal bests.

Christie’s 9.92 was the fastest ever by a European but he was despondent when interviewed by the BBC’s Brendan Foster after the race, saying that he had reached his peak at the age of 31 and there were no faster times in his ageing legs. Foster had to spend a good two minutes of compelling television persuading the Great Britain team captain why retirement after running his best time would be a profligate folly. Live on air, Foster’s ardent and sympathetic campaigning changed the sprinter’s mind. Since his breakthrough season in 1986, age had always been an issue. The slow starter, as the poet Louis MacNeice observed about himself, “took his time, and found his time and talent gone”. Precisely that fear, that a lack of discipline and diligence during the early part of his career had fatally undermined his prospects of fulfilling his potential, was the spectre at almost all his feasts. Until 1992 there were at least as many what-ifs as well dones. Christie was brought up by his grandmother Anita in St Andrew, Jamaica, the parish that spreads north, west and east from Kingston up to the Blue Mountains.

“My grandmother was strict and kept me on the straight and narrow,” he said. “In Jamaica, before she sent me to the shops, she would spit on the ground and say: ‘Don’t let it dry before you come back.’ You knew you had to run, even though, like most kids, I wanted to hang out with my friends. So I ran to the shop and back – it was my first experience of back-to-back training.” At the age of seven he moved to Shepherd’s Bush in west London to join his parents and took up athletics at Henry Compton school in Fulham in his teens. Living on Loftus Road, football was understandably his first love, taking inspiration from the maverick charm of QPR’s Rodney Marsh and the exemplary style and verve of Manchester United’s George Best. It was while playing the game at school that he was spotted and recruited for the athletics team but he did not commit himself to the sport, and even then not all that seriously, until he joined Thames Valley Harriers when he was 19.

In 1979 he began to train with Ron Roddan, a silver-haired former sprinter who became his first and only coach, at the West London Stadium which lies in the shadow of Hammersmith hospital and HMP Wormwood Scrubs in Acton, barely a mile north of Christie’s parental home. For years he partied as much as he trained and said that the culture of growing up in a first-generation immigrant West Indian family meant that his focus was elsewhere. “You helped around the home, you did your schoolwork and then you got a job, that was your priority,” he told the Observer’s Kevin Mitchell. “No one knew really you could make a career from sport.” He made his contribution to the family as a cashier for the Co-op and later as an Inland Revenue clerk. He raced alongside Kermit Bentham and Mike McFarlane who called him “Horse” because they felt he galloped all over his lane. He got by on talent rather than technique and hard work – beating better-prepared athletes gave him a thrill.

If you have ever had a teacher who trotted out the old line about how they would always take the side of the mediocre-minded who put the effort in rather than the clever but indolent, you can guess how the GB coaches felt about that. Success domestically at the inter-counties and other meets, however, convinced Christie he should be on the relay team for the 1984 Los Angeles Games. He was not picked and when he confronted the coach to ask the reason for his omission, Frank Dick said: “Because you’re not good enough.” Instead of mollycoddling him with sympathy, Roddan wrote to Christie saying he should knuckle down or walk away. Andy Norman, the former policeman turned promotions director of the British Athletic Federation, also sent him a letter, arguing that a sprinter who had a personal best of 10.5 without giving it his all had the capability of becoming Europe’s best if he dedicated himself to the sport. He wasn’t invited to the elite meetings, said Norman who controlled the purse-strings and much else in the sport, “because you couldn’t fill a phone box” but suggested that could quickly be redressed if he changed his attitude.

Christie was finally convinced by the arguments and committed himself to gambling all his energies on training. Out went the long afternoons playing dominoes, the rum-and-blackcurrants and the clubbing and partying that kept him out so late he often came home with the milk bottles. “He made up his mind that he was going to be the best and he did everything necessary to achieve that,” Roddan said in 1993. “A lot of people have said the same thing. But they don’t do the work. Linford is a very receptive athlete.” But was it too late? “I was in a room with these guys from athletics and I said I wanted to be Olympic champion,” he said after his first year of intensive training. “They all said, at 26, I was already too old. I said: ‘They say that your sexual peak is at 19, but how many of you guys believe that?’ They all laughed. But they knew I was right, too.” In 1986 he won his first international championship, in the 200m at the European indoors and was runner-up to Ben Johnson in the 100m at the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh.

Four years on from his disappointment over Los Angeles, his third-place in the 100m final in Seoul was upgraded to silver behind Carl Lewis after Johnson’s disqualification, and in 1990 he again won Commonwealth as well as European indoor and outdoor titles. As a black man in west London in the 1980s he was the victim of police violence, harassment and abuse when repeatedly stopped while driving through his home borough. On one occasion he was waved to a halt, provocatively questioned and arrested while the Metropolitan police investigated the ownership of a sponsored car he was driving. At court, after the charges were dropped, the police apologised and paid him damages. Despite that, his patriotism never wavered and the first thing he targeted after winning a medal was a union flag to drape around his shoulders on the victory lap. His motivation for gold in Barcelona was, he said, “Roddan and the people”. In general his relationship with the British newspapers was appalling. He felt they were too critical, damning even, while some of the athletics’ press corps felt Christie was uncooperative, arrogantly antagonistic and rude.

On the eve of Barcelona he told Hugh McIlvanney how he took strength from bigots’ prejudices against him, his maltreatment by the police and what he perceived to be the hostility of disrespectful writers in memorable terms. “Every time they shit on my head, I wear a new hat,” he said. “All the bad stuff has proved my mental strength.” His first team-mates also called him “Horse” because of his long legs and the problems they caused him in picking up his stride. After he began to adopt a higher knee lift in 1985 and generate more power from his hips, he started to resemble his great rival Lewis in style but acknowledged before the Games that he still had to correct the problem that had hindered him. He may have coined that evocative phrase about always going “on the B of the Bang” yet he was, in truth, an erratic starter. “I have a habit of going side to side in the first two or three strides and that means vital fractions of seconds are being lost,” he said. “I must go on striving to gear everything so that I am driving straight forward.

You must run as economically as possible, get the maximum miles per gallon.” He honed his start during the winter in Australia and must have been heartened in July after a cat and mouse European outdoor season racing against Olapade Adeninken, Frankie Fredericks, Mitchell and Burrell when he heard the news that the defending champion, Lewis, had failed to make the USA team for the 100m at the trials in Louisiana. “Maybe it’s someone else’s turn,” said Christie. It proved to be his turn. The unofficial motto for those attempting to qualify for Barcelona, “no pain, no Spain”, seemed apt even after their arrival and the complaints about inadequate facilities, in particular the short beds, were rife. The GB team’s focus was temporarily distracted when Jason Livingston, the reigning European indoor 60m champion, tested positive for the steroid methandienone and was sent home. Christie was said to have counselled his 21-year-old team-mate long into the night after his expulsion and before his own heat and quarter-final.

Christie won both, the first after a lumbering start in 10.48, the second in a season equal-best 10.07 which pushed Burrell into second place. In the semi-final Burrell had his revenge, winning in 9.97 with Christie behind him in 10 dead. “I was in control the whole way, whereas Leroy was running really hard,” the GB captain said three years later. At the time, however, despite taking confidence from improving his time with each race, he maintained that Burrell and Mitchell were favourites. Even before he took his place at the start line shortly before 7pm BST on Saturday 1 August, he looked fully focused, lost in a zone of his own concerns. The BBC’s commentary team elaborated on his tunnel vision and in Christie’s case it was literally true. “Barcelona was the first time I went to the blocks imagining my lane was a tunnel, with everything else on either side a blur,” he wrote. The first time they crouched in their blocks, Burrell false-started, the second time Mitchell raised his hand and they were all told to stand up.

At last they went off at the third attempt, Fredericks powering marginally ahead in the first 20m but Christie’s opening strides were smooth and true. At 50m he edged ahead, pumping his arms and knees, his eyes fixed straight ahead, unblinking on the line and confident that his second-phase surge was the strongest in the field, and he knew he had won. He crossed it in 9.96, raised his arms to form a Y and smiled briefly before skipping towards the crowd. He took his customary lap with the union flag and received his medal with a lump in his throat but says he was too scared to cry in case the pictures were endlessly replayed and used to mock him. Six weeks before the Games he said his only aim was “to get from one end of the track to the other as fast as possible for Queen and country”. He was certainly cheered home by the latter to win, as David Coleman put it, “the greatest prize in sport”. “When I began to wind down, I felt mentally exhausted,” he wrote in his autobiography. “It may be 10 seconds but that had been 10 years to me.

Mentally, physically and spiritually, it’s tough because of the need to dig in, concentrate, avoid mistakes and get everything right. For those 10 seconds you are putting everything you’ve got in your body into running 100m. People say 100m is not that far. They should try running it. It’s a long, long way.” However many more twists and turns that long journey still had to go, the abiding memory of that night is Britain’s pride in its singular sprinter and his stunning Olympic moment. What the Observer said Hugh McIlvanney 2 August, 1992 Linford Christie turned the Olympic 100 metres final into a graceful slaughter as his long stride almost disdainfully overwhelmed the sprinting power of America and Africa to take the greatest gold medal victory ever achieved by a British athlete. The most satisfying 10 seconds of Christie’s life (9.96 to be precise) did not permit the briefest flicker of serious threat from any of the seven outstanding sprinters from five nations lined up against him.

When he had crossed the line a couple of relaxed strides ahead of Namibia’s Frankie Fredericks it was hard to believe how unchallengable his supremacy has been on the way to becoming, at 32, the oldest 100 metres champion in Olympic history. It was, however, easy to accept his declaration that the whole of his athletic career – and especially the past decade of intense effort in alliance with his coach and trusted friend, Ron Roddan – had been a rehearsal for 7pm British time (and he was determined that it should be the most British of times) in the Montjuïc Stadium last night. “Nothing was going to distract me,” he said later, echoing the theme of inviolable concentration he had articulated for me in the rather different surroundings of a rain-swept West London Stadium three weeks before. Now, in Spain, in the biggest test of all, he needed every vestige of the single-mindedness he had honed over long years of international competition and on countless glamorous nights at that simple training ground.

First he had to cope with the unsettling effects of a false start but there was consolation in the knowledge that it was precipitated by Leroy Burrell, the former holder of the world record at 100 metres and the betting favourite to win last night. Burrell had beaten Christie in a good semi-final and his 9.97 was the fastest time ever recorded into a headwind, but after ruining one start the American had to be concerned about the risks of disqualification. There may have been a greater element of calculation involved when the second US contender, Dennis Mitchell, suddenly raised a hand after the field had settled down for another attempt at a getaway. Mitchell apparently wanted a few seconds to compose himself and no doubt would have welcomed the bonus of discomfiting one or two others. But if he had Christie in mind, his was a forlorn hope. The captain of the British men’s athletics team had found himself handling far more distressing problems earlier in the week when his former training companion, Jason Livingston, failed a drug test and was packed off home.

Christie was determined to lift his team’s morale with a perfect run for the gold medal and once the starter had sent them away at last, that was pretty much what he produced. At 6ft 2½in and 14 stone, he is beautifully constructed for the job, both lithe and muscular. From the moment he launched himself smoothly from his blocks, avoiding the slightly lurching start that has often slowed him over the first 15 metres, he was in absolute command. Fredericks may have started fractionally better but the difference was minimal and almost immediately it was utterly irrelevant. By halfway, the large British contingent in the crowd could roar confidently and 25 metres short of the line he was plainly out of reach. Great Britain to send ‘best-prepared athletics team’ to Rio Olympics Read more At the finish he was six one-hundredths of a second in front of Fredericks, with Mitchell in third place and Burrell labouring back in fifth. The nearest the great American came to Christie was when they stood in the adjoining lanes, five and six, at the start. Fredericks was obviously a far happier man, having brought distinction to Namibia, a country competing at the Olympics for the first time.

But no one was as happy as Christie when he carried an immense union flag on his lap of honour and blew kisses to his supporters. He was born in Jamaica but raised in West London and, in spite of having more than his fair share of racist maltreatment, he is impressively patriotic. Two other British sprinters have won this title but the Americans were absent because of a boycott when Alan Wells of Scotland took it in Moscow 12 years ago and it was in the Chariots of Fire era that Harold Abrahams claimed his gold at the 1924 Games. “I can’t afford to be emotional,” Christie said at his victor’s interview. “I’ve got other races to run. I must concentrate on my next job, the 200 metres. OK, there was no Carl Lewis, no Ben Johnson. It’s a shame Carl wasn’t there but today was my day.” And one that will be remembered in Britain as long as foot-racing remains a sport.

Linford Christie Bio, Stats, and Results | Olympics at Sports-Reference.com Medals: 1 Gold, 2 Silver (3 Total) Biography Born in Jamaica Linford Christie followed his parents, who had emigrated some years earlier, to England at the age of seven but it was not until he was 19 that he took up sprinting. Although considered by many within British athletics to have prodigious talent he showed a lack of discipline in training that meant he narrowly missed selection for the relay at the 1984 Olympics. Fired by his Olympic disappointment and under the tutelage of Ron Roddam he showed a more professional attitude to training and he immediately converted this improved form by winning the 1986 European title, which he would retain in 1990 and 1994. At the 1988 Seoul Olympics, Christie finished third in the 100 m final, but his medal was upgraded to silver after [Ben Johnson] was disqualified. Christie was very close to being disqualified himself: traces of pseudo-ephedrine in his urine were found, but a jury ruled it might have been ingested through ginseng, which was allowed.

Olympic 100m final: Can Usain Bolt make history? - CNN.com Olympic 100m final: Can Usain Bolt make history? By James Montague, CNN Updated 11:38 AM ET, Sun August 5, 2012 Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what's happening in the world as it unfolds. JUST WATCHED Bolt: 'I can break 100 meter record' 03:28 Story highlights Usain Bolt could make history during this weekend's 100m final He'd match Carl Lewis' record of back-to-back 100m titles But he has friend Yohan Blake hot on his heels Could either one of them break the 9.4s barrier? It is the question that has followed Usain Bolt for the past four years, the answer to which will not truly be known until the final for the men's 100 meters sprint in London has been done and dusted. Just how fast could he have run on that night in Beijing? It seems a crazy thing to ask.

After all, the Jamaican smashed the world record with a time of 9.69 seconds, winning gold and saving the Olympics' marquee sport from itself after successive drug scandals. And he has run faster since, setting a new record a year later at the World Championships with a time of 9.58 seconds. But Beijing was much more than a world record. It was the manner of his victory that catapulted him into the kind of international fame not seen in track and field since the U.S. Olympic legend Carl Lewis. JUST WATCHED The royal & the runner: Harry vs. Bolt 02:19 Photos: Photos: Bolt out of the blue – Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt will begin his quest to make history by becoming the first man since Carl Lewis to defend the men's 100 meter title. Hide Caption 1 of 6 Photos: Bolt arrives – The 25-year-old Bolt became a global star after smashing the world record at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He won three golds, in the 100, 200 and 4x100 meter relay, breaking three world records in the process.

Hide Caption 2 of 6 Photos: Lightning Bolt strikes twice – Bolt broke his own world record a year later, posting a time of 9.58 seconds at the 2009 World Championships. Hide Caption 3 of 6 Photos: Strike a pose – Both runs have cemented Bolt's reputation as one of the greatest sprinters of all time. Former Olympic champion Linford Christie told CNN has describe the Jamaican as the most famous athlete of all time. Hide Caption 4 of 6 Photos: Royal command – So much so that even royalty wants to be photographed next to Bolt. Here Prince Harry from the British royal family briefly threatens Bolt's sprint dominance during an official visit to Jamaica. Hide Caption 5 of 6 Photos: Hot on his heels – Prince Harry isn't the only one giving Bolt a scare. If he is to defend his 100 and 200 meter titles he has to beat his compatriot, training partner and current world champion Yohan Blake. Blake also beat Bolt over both distances during this year's Jamaican Olympic trials.

Hide Caption Photos: The story of 100 meters final at the 1988 Olympics Photos: The story of 100 meters final at the 1988 Olympics Race for the prize – The 100 meter final at the 1988 Seoul Olympics remains one of the most infamous and fascinating moments in the games' history. The race was won in a world record time by Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson. But he was to be stripped of his medal and record under the shadow of drug use. Hide Caption 1 of 13 Photos: The story of 100 meters final at the 1988 Olympics All-American hero – The story began long before that fateful day in 1988. It's 1984 and the Olympics -- blighted by boycotts, incompetence and financial ruin -- are on the verge being consigned to the dustbin of history. But before the Los Angeles Olympics an All American hero emerged: Carl Lewis. Hide Caption 2 of 13 Photos: The story of 100 meters final at the 1988 Olympics A rivalry begins – Lewis was the hero of L.A.

Marketed as part athlete, part Michael Jackson he was the face of the first games to make a profit and propel the games in to a new commercial era. He won three gold medals, including here in the 4x100 meter final. Behind him in third place is unknown Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson who won bronze. A new rivalry was born. Hide Caption 3 of 13 Photos: The story of 100 meters final at the 1988 Olympics The begining of the end – Lewis was the best in the world and a highly marketable commodity. But Johnson was emerging as a challenger -- and a threat -- to Lewis' undisputed crown. According to a new book The Dirtiest Race in History, it was during this time that Johnson -- under coach Charlie Francis started taking steroids. After eight straight defeats to Lewis, Johnson began regularly beating his American foe. Hide Caption 4 of 13 Photos: The story of 100 meters final at the 1988 Olympics Starters orders – The 1988 100 meters final was arguably the most anticipated in the sport's history.

Johnson (far right) and Lewis (far left) were the favorites, along with Calvin Smith (second from right) from the U.S. and a young Linford Christie (second from left) from Great Britain. Hide Caption 5 of 13 Photos: The story of 100 meters final at the 1988 Olympics Take off – Johnson had already beaten Lewis four times the year before, and set a new world record at the World Championships in Rome. He was also renowned for having the fastest start on the track. The world watched in awe as Johnson exploded out of the blocks. Hide Caption 6 of 13 Photos: The story of 100 meters final at the 1988 Olympics Gold for Canada – Ben Johnson smashed his own world record with a run of 9.79 seconds. He had blown Lewis, and the rest of the field, away. After his victory Johnson claimed he could have run even quicker if he had not triumphantly raised his right arm before crossing the finishing line. Hide Caption 7 of 13 Photos: The story of 100 meters final at the 1988 Olympics Top fo the world...

– For Johnson it was the pinnacle of a life's work. But it was not to last long as a South Korean journalist broke the story that Johnson had failed a drugs test after traces of the anabolic steroid Stanozolol were detected. Johnson was stripped of his medal, his record and his title from the previous year's World Championship. Lewis was handed the gold, Christie the silver and Calvin Smith the bronze. Hide Caption 8 of 13 Photos: The story of 100 meters final at the 1988 Olympics The prodigal son returns – Johnson returned to Canada in disgrace. He would later claim that the reaction to his ban had a racial tinge. While he was a Canadian hero before the race, afterwards he was merely the Jamaican-born drugs cheat. Hide Caption 9 of 13 Photos: The story of 100 meters final at the 1988 Olympics Confession of a drug user – Canada was left in a state of shock by Johnson's ban, and set up the Dubin inquiry to look into the problem of drugs in sport. Johnson appeared at the hearing, which was televised live and kept a country transfixed.

Johnson's coach Francis, who admitted that his sprinter had been using steroids for seven years, would claim that almost every athlete at the time was on drugs. Johnson, he claimed, was just the unlucky one who got caught. Hide Caption 10 of 13 Photos: The story of 100 meters final at the 1988 Olympics An open secret – Six of the eight finalists in Seoul would later fail drugs test or be implicated in their use. While before the race the IOC had largely been ambivalent on the issue, the embarrassment caused by the scandal lead to a new regime of drug testing. Hide Caption 11 of 13 Photos: The story of 100 meters final at the 1988 Olympics Defending the title – The scandal also detracted from Carl Lewis' achievements. He became the first man to defend a 100 meter Olympic title. At London 2012 Jamaican sprinter and world 100 meter record holder Usain Bolt will attempt to emulate the American.

Hide Caption 1 of 12 Photos: Gold running: Jamaican sprinters on top Second gold – Bolt claimed his second gold in China with an emphatic victory in the 200m, setting another world record. Hide Caption 2 of 12 Photos: Gold running: Jamaican sprinters on top Four for three – Bolt completed a gold medal treble as Jamaica's sprint relay quartet also triumphed in Beijing. Hide Caption Photos: Gold running: Jamaican sprinters on top Golden role model – Bolt greets his inspiration, 1976 Olympic 200m champion Don Quarrie. Hide Caption 4 of 12 Photos: Gold running: Jamaican sprinters on top Inspiring a generation – Quarrie also won 100m silver at Montreal, and six gold medals at the Commonweath Games. Hide Caption 5 of 12 Photos: Gold running: Jamaican sprinters on top Early trailblazers – Jamaica has a strong running tradition. Here Arthur Wint pips compatriot Herb McKenley to win gold over 400m at the 1948 London Olympics.

Hide Caption 6 of 12 Photos: Gold running: Jamaican sprinters on top Proud to be Jamaican – Merlene Ottey shows off the Jamaican flag after her gold medal success at the 1993 World Championships in Stuttgart. Hide Caption 7 of 12 Photos: Gold running: Jamaican sprinters on top Still going strong – The remarkable Ottey was still competing for Slovenia at a Diamond League Athletics meeting in London in 2011. Now 52, she still has hopes of qualifying for London 2012. Hide Caption 8 of 12 Photos: Gold running: Jamaican sprinters on top Cool running – Jamaica-born Linford Christie claimed gold for Britain in the 100m at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Hide Caption 9 of 12 Photos: Gold running: Jamaican sprinters on top Jamaican export – Donovan Bailey, who left Jamaica at the age of 13, won gold representing Canada in the Olympic 100m at Atlanta in 1996.

Hide Caption 10 of 12 Photos: Gold running: Jamaican sprinters on top Fast woman – Jamaica's Olympic 100m women's champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce also won the world title the following year in Berlin. Hide Caption 11 of 12 Photos: Gold running: Jamaican sprinters on top Golden girl of the 200m – Veronica Campbell-Brown is bidding for a hat-trick of 200m gold medals at the London Olympics following her triumphs in Beijing and Athens. Hide Caption 1 of 8 Photos: Human to Hero: Tyson Gay Beating Bolt – Gay will be hoping to repeat his performance at the 2007 IAAF World Athletic Championships in Osaka, Japan where he crossed the line first in the 200m ahead of Usain Bolt. Hide Caption 2 of 8 Photos: Human to Hero: Tyson Gay Jumping for joy – But Gay stormed to gold in the 100m, beating Derrick Atkins of the Bahamas (left) and Jamaica's Asafa Powell in a time of 9.85 seconds.

Hide Caption Photos: Human to Hero: Tyson Gay Three and easy – Gay also won gold as part of the U.S. 4x100m relay team. Hide Caption 4 of 8 Photos: Human to Hero: Tyson Gay Subjected to silver – Two years later in Berlin though, triple Olympic champion Bolt won gold in the 100m and 200m, setting world record times in both. Gay had to settle for silver in the 100m. Hide Caption 5 of 8 Photos: Human to Hero: Tyson Gay Strung out – Prior to the Beijing Olympics, Gay was troubled by a hamstring injury which meant he arrived at the Games in less than perfect shape and he failed to win a medal. Here Gay (far left) finishes fifth in the 100m semifinal to miss out on the final, won by Bolt in record time. Hide Caption 6 of 8 Photos: Human to Hero: Tyson Gay A Greene mentor – Gay counts America's retired sprinter Maurice Greene as both a hero and a mentor. The former Olympic 100m champion's advice and support "really means a lot to me," says Gay.

Hide Caption 7 of 8 Photos: Human to Hero: Tyson Gay Near miss – Gay's first outing at the World Championships at Helsinki's Olympic Stadium in 2005 ended without a medal. Here he can be seen (second from left) finishing fourth in the 200m final. Hide Caption 1 of 8 Photos: The fastest woman on earth? Back to school – Campbell-Brown, who has won three Olympic golds in total, also has a charitable foundation aimed at empowering Jamaican girls through sport. Hide Caption 2 of 8 Photos: The fastest woman on earth? Yam busters – Her birthplace, Trelawny, has produced many Olympic medal winners, including Usain Bolt, U.S. 400-meter runner Sanya Richards-Ross and the disgraced Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson. Campbell Brown puts the phenomenon down to the local yams, which are packed with carbohydrates. Hide Caption 3 of 8 Photos: The fastest woman on earth? Crossing the line – London 2012 will be Campbell-Brown's fourth Olympics. She won her first 200 meter gold medal at Athens in 2004 at the age of 22.

Hide Caption 4 of 8 Photos: The fastest woman on earth? Smells like team spirit – She capped an incredible competition in Greece by also taking the Jamaican 4x100m relay team over the finishing line in first place. Hide Caption 5 of 8 Photos: The fastest woman on earth? Flying the flag – Her inspirational performances in Athens meant that she was asked to carry the flag for the Jamaican team at the opening ceremony for Beijing 2008. Hide Caption 6 of 8 Photos: The fastest woman on earth? Flying through the finishing line – Campbell-Brown, who successfully defended her 200m title in China, will still only be 30 by the time London 2012 begins. Hide Caption 7 of 8 Photos: The fastest woman on earth? On top of the world – Last year she ran the 100 meters in 10.76 seconds, the second fastest time in history, raising the prospect that she could contend in London for both sprint events. Hide Caption Lightning Bolts: Why do all the top sprinters come from Jamaica? - CNN.com Lightning Bolts: Why do all the top sprinters come from Jamaica?

By Paul Gittings, CNN updated 12:14 PM EDT, Thu June 21, 2012 STORY HIGHLIGHTS Jamaicans dominate men's and women's sprinting in track and field competition Usain Bolt will be defending his Olympic 100 and 200m titles in London in August Jamaican athletes hold 46 of the top 69 best times in the men's 100m event Their success can be attributed to upbringing, lifestyle and strong desire to win Editor's note: CNN's Aiming for Gold Olympics show airs on June 21 at 1630 GMT, on June 23 at 0730 and 2100, June 24 at 1630, June 30 at 1630 and July 1 at 0730 and 2100. (CNN) -- When the fastest men on the planet contest the Olympic 100 meters final in London on August 5, it will be a major upset if the winner does not come from the small Caribbean island of Jamaica.

Injuries or false starts aside, Usain Bolt will take center stage as he bids to retain the title he won in Beijing in 2008, but if he slips up then young pretender Yohan Blake is waiting in the wings, not to mention veteran former world record-holder Asafa Powell. With such a pool of talent, 4x100m relay success is almost guaranteed, and Bolt is an even heavier favorite for 200m individual gold. In the women's events, Jamaican domination is also a common theme, with Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce defending her 100m crown and Veronica Campbell-Brown going for a hat-trick of golds in the 200m. Sprinters from the United States have won the majority of gold medals in the modern Olympic era and the likes of Tyson Gay will be keen to knock Bolt off the top of the podium in London. But Gay represents a country with a population of over 300 million people with a massive tradition in track and field through the eras of stars such as Jesse Owens, Carl Lewis and Florence Griffith-Joyner.

So how is it that they are now largely second best to athletes from an impoverished island inhabited by fewer than three million people? And it's not only athletes who don the famous gold and green trim of Jamaica who have made their mark. Olympic 100m champions Linford Christie (for Great Britain in 1992) and Donovan Bailey (for Canada in 1996) were born and bred in Jamaica, as was the now disgraced Ben Johnson, who also represented Canada. Usain Bolt strikes his trademark pose after claiming gold in the 100 meters at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Bolt claimed his second gold in China with an emphatic victory in the 200m, setting another world record. Bolt completed a gold medal treble as Jamaica's sprint relay quartet also triumphed in Beijing. Bolt greets his inspiration, 1976 Olympic 200m champion Don Quarrie. Quarrie also won 100m silver at Montreal, and six gold medals at the Commonweath Games. Jamaica has a strong running tradition.

Here Arthur Wint pips compatriot Herb McKenley to win gold over 400m at the 1948 London Olympics. Merlene Ottey shows off the Jamaican flag after her gold medal success at the 1993 World Championships in Stuttgart. The remarkable Ottey was still competing for Slovenia at a Diamond League Athletics meeting in London in 2011. Now 52, she still has hopes of qualifying for London 2012. Jamaica-born Linford Christie claimed gold for Britain in the 100m at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Donovan Bailey, who left Jamaica at the age of 13, won gold representing Canada in the Olympic 100m at Atlanta in 1996. Jamaica's Olympic 100m women's champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce also won the world title the following year in Berlin. Veronica Campbell-Brown is bidding for a hat-trick of 200m gold medals at the London Olympics following her triumphs in Beijing and Athens.

Bolt's bow and arrow >> London 2012 Olympic stadium opens So what is the secret of this remarkable Jamaican sprinting pedigree and will it continue into the future? Role models With role models like Bolt and Campbell-Brown, the conveyor belt of talent certainly shows no signs of slowing. The 22-year-old Blake, who won last year's world championship 100m in Daegu when Bolt was disqualified in the final for false starting , is the latest to emerge. Bolt himself drew inspiration from a former Jamaican great -- Don Quarrie, who won the 1976 Olympic 200m title in Montreal and six Commonwealth Games gold medals. "For me Don Quarrie was somebody to watch and to be amazed by," Bolt told CNN's Aiming for Gold program. "That's why I love the 200m so much because I've seen Don Quarrie and I said, 'I can be that good.' Quarrie, (Herb) McKenley, these are the guys that I looked up to." McKenley and Arthur Wint were the first Jamaicans to taste Olympic success, at the 1948 London Games.

The elegant Wint pipped McKenley for gold in the longer 400m sprint, while the latter achieved the rare feat of reaching the finals of the 100, 200 and 400m at the first post-war Olympics. Of Jamaica's current crop of women stars, Campbell-Brown was mentored by the great Merlene Ottey, who won a record 14 world championship medals for Jamaica in the sprint events and was still competing at international level for her adopted Slovenia past her 50th birthday. Now 52, Ottey still has hopes of qualifying for London 2012. "She (Ottey) is a very positive person, very strong, very hard working, very passionate and she is a friend," Campbell-Brown told CNN. A hard school Campbell-Brown went to the same high school in Jamaica as Ottey -- Vere Technical -- and both earned their trade in the ferociously competitive track and field schools competition on the island. Bolt is convinced the key to Jamaican success is the intense rivalry of grassroots athletics from an early age.

Bolt: 'I can break 100 meter record' Human to Hero: Sprinter Yohan Blake Human to Hero: Veronica Campbell-Brown Tyson Gay's Olympic ambition "I feel we push our young athletes," he said. "There is this thing called the Boys and Girls Championships in Jamaica, which showcases the talent. "The level of competition is really high because it pushes you every day to be the best in your event, in your class." And even now as Bolt gets down on the blocks at a major championships, that early experience gained is invaluable. "I think it helped me to get past my fear of running in front of thousands and millions of people because I'm front of a home crowd and we are under a lot of pressure." The four-day championships play to crowds of up to 30,000 at the national stadium in Kingston, while a TV audience of over a million watch the live coverage. Many of the top stars go back to hand out medals and inspire the next generation.

As a 16-year-old, Bolt thrived in this mini-Olympics in 2003, winning the 200/400 double in 20.23 and 45.30 seconds -- times which would have been good enough to qualify for most Olympic finals. Campbell-Brown was spotted at an early age while still at primary school and placed on the path to Olympic glory. "My coach and teacher at the time said to me, 'You are very talented, I think this is going to be a career path for you,' and he recommended Vere, which is still a sprint factory." Christie was unwittingly put on his course to Olympic glory by his grandmother. "She used to get us to to run errands to the shops and told us that she would spit on the ground and did not want it to dry before we got back. It meant we ran fast!" said the 52-year-old, who moved to Britain before he got the chance to compete in the Boys and Girls Championships. Coaching guru Despite the hot house atmosphere of the schools showpiece, it is still a big step to the international athletics arena. Even Bolt, with his supreme abilities, needed assistance to make it to the top.

Former world champion sprinter Tyson Gay is seeking to put past disappointment behind him at London 2012. The American beat triple Olympic champion Usain Bolt in the 100 meters final at a Diamond League meeting held in Stockholm, Sweden in 2010. Bolt left Gay trailing in second place at the 2009 World Athletics Championships in Berlin when the Jamaican set a new world record of 9.58 seconds for the 100m. Gay broke Maurice Greene's U.S. record for the 100m during the American trials for the 2008 Olympics, but a hamstring injury picked up later during the trials in the 200m dented his prospects in Beijing -- where he failed to reach the final of the shorter event. Gay on the podium collecting the gold medal for winning the 100m at the 2007 World Athletics Championships in Osaka, Japan. He also won the 200m from Bolt and picked up another title in the 4x100m relay. Gay with compatriot Justin Gatlin at the 2005 World Athletics Championships in Helsinki.

Gatlin won the 100/200m double, but the 2004 Olympic champion is now on the comeback trail after serving a four-year ban for a positive drug test. Gay goes for gold in London Beating Bolt >> The world's greatest athlete? Glen Mills grew up wanting to emulate McKenley and Wint, but he turned to coaching when he realized he would fall short. In his 22-year stint in charge of the Jamaican national athletics team, he oversaw 71 world championship medals and 33 in the Olympics. Mills quickly recognized that Bolt was a unique talent, but one who needed persuading to work hard. A defeat to Gay over 200m at the world championships in Osaka in 2007 proved a turning point. "I ran hard, came off the bend slightly behind Tyson Gay and I could not catch him. I was running really hard and I could not catch him," recounted Bolt.

"After that race I went over and I said, 'Coach, I was really trying, but I couldn't catch him.' " Mills replied: "You are weak, you are very weak because you are not going to the gym and you don't like running 200." The rest is history. "I really dedicated myself to everything because I really wanted to be a champion," said Bolt, who became a global superstar the following year as he won the 100 and 200m in Beijing in breathtaking, record-breaking style. Mills stepped down from fulltime involvement with Jamaica in 2009, but still coaches Bolt and Blake and some other up-and-coming athletes. Cultural factors Bolt, like many of Jamaica's sprinting sensations, comes from a rural background where hard graft is part of the daily routine. The son of a coffee farm laborer, he grew up in a parish called Trelawny in the north of Jamaica. His house had no running water and as a child he had to walk for miles with heavy, loaded pails, building up a natural strength. In many ways it mirrors the rural backgrounds of the great Kenyan and Ethiopian long distance runners.

Campbell-Brown, who also grew up in Trelawny, believes it is a factor in Jamaica's success. Two brothers, one Olympic spot The infamous black power salute Secrets to creating world's best runners "I would fetch water from the river, so I did a lot of walking. I would walk to school, there's a lot of hills," the 30-year-old said. "I think it's just hard work, determination and all the things that we have to do growing up as a young person that has contributed. "Jamaica is full of so much talent. It just so happens that a huge number of those talented people were born in Trelawny." Among them is Johnson, who lived in the area until emigrating to Canada in 1976 aged 15. His winning time of 9.79 seconds to win the 1988 Olympics 100m title was considered one of the greatest performances in the history of athletics. But a failed drugs test in Seoul for the banned steroid Stanozolol saw him stripped of the gold and gain worldwide infamy. Blake also had a rural upbringing, and tested his natural ability in unusual fashion.

"We grew up in the country where your only friends are animals. I find it funny, once we were running with goats and stuff. I think the sprinting really starts from there," he told CNN. Living off the land may well have benefits in terms of diet, with yams the staple food. "My parents used to plant their own yams, it's very natural and often eaten with fish," said Campbell-Brown. Christie agrees: "It's often said you are what you eat, and the Jamaican diet is a really natural one, full of fruit and vegetables and protein." Sprinting showoffs Whether it's through their tough backgrounds and lifestyles, their healthy diet and then the rigors of early competition and training, Jamaica's sprinters have found the magic ingredient for success. But those factors alone are not unique in the world, so maybe there's another factor that gives them that extra edge? "Sprinting is a Jamaican attitude," said Christie. "To be a sprinter you need to be a little bit of showoff.

Because like the heavyweight boxing champions of the world, this is what sprinting is all about and, you know, Jamaicans just love to show off!" The supreme "showoff" of his time, perhaps of all time, just has to be Bolt -- and it comes naturally to him. "I'm a person who always liked to express himself, even in my younger days, it comes naturally to me," he said. "Even when I was younger I would do stuff and notice that the crowd really clicked to that. "I've really just continued doing it. It's fun for me and people come out also to see me run fast but also to see 'What new thing is Usain going to do today, what is he going to come up with to make us laugh?' " Bolt's bow and arrow victory salute is his trademark, and if the form book is anything to go by he will be dusting off the routine a few more times in London -- and a host of his teammates are set to join him on the medal podiums. Part of complete coverage on

Question: Linford Christie won a gold medal representing Great Britain in the 100 metres at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, but what country was he born in?
Answer: Jamaica