What to do when you’ve got the fastest man on Earth in your office? Hit the street for goat meat from a cart, naturally.

photos and text by Adam Spangler

He never runs more than 600 meters at once. His favorite sneakers aren’t runners but Puma Tommie Smith limited edition Clydes (in black, size 13). His favorite basketball player is Kevin Garnett (“but everyone else in Jamaica loves the Lakers,” he admits). His back is his biggest health concern. And he’s going to train with Spain’s Real Madrid, one of the biggest soccer clubs in the world. What can Men’s Journal possibly add to the global Usain Bolt press tour?

The answer was instantaneous: the Jamaican Dutchy lunch cart, an office favorite. Sitting not-so-quietly on the corner on 51st and Broadway 7th Ave. in midtown Manhattan with a flat-screen TV hanging just out of reach of the rain airing Jamaican track and field highlights from Beijing on constant loop for customers while they wait, the authentic jerk lunch cart seemed the perfect way to add a little spice to what was surely just another stop on the Bolt bus.

It would make the day of anyone who witnessed the world-record speed of Bolt, but sharing a taste of home with the fastest man on Earth made more than that for Dutchy owner O’Neil.

Before grabbing a bite, we sat down with the world’s fastest man to learn about the race, his future, and his country (and play a few video games):

Bolt and O’Neill sandwiched between the cameras.

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Bolt had to be pulled from a “Medal of Honor” orgy on the office flat screen.

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Take us through the 100-meter final in Beijing.

I got an average start; it wasn’t a bad one. But for me an average start is a good start. And I knew if I got a good start I wasn’t going to lose because that is the main problem for me. So I started fine, then I missed my fifth step. It didn’t show that much, but if you take a good look you will probably see that it’s shorter. At 30 meters I came out of my drive phase and looked across, my eye balls side to side, and saw I was with the field, maybe a meter back. After 50 meters I looked again to see exactly where I was. I was right in line with the field, maybe a little bit ahead, and pretty much after that I was ahead. At 75 meters out I looked across and saw that I was winning and started celebrating.

Scientist are saying that your stride length combined with your fast-twitch muscles helped propel you to the gold. They talk about it as if you are some sort of genetic freak. Is that uniqueness something you were aware of?

I knew my stride length would be an advantage for me. I knew that much but I never really knew if over time my fast twitch muscles—I don’t even know. None of that is conscious, but I knew my stride length would help me.

You didn’t always run the 100 meters. How did your choice of events evolve?

When I was younger I ran the 100 meters. The reason I stopped was because my start was awful. I ran the 200 and 400 meters. I was doing so well, but the training for the 400 meters was so intense and hard that I didn’t want to do it. So I started doing the 200 alone, but my coach said I have to do something else. I started off running some 400 and after 30 hours I said, “Coach, c’mon, I want to run the 100, I think I can do it.” But he was like, “Naw, blah blah blah.” So we made a deal: I get to run one 100 meter race, and if I do well, I could do it all season. I ran a 10.03, so he said, “Alright, we’ll give it a chance.”

What is your daily training regiment like?

I wake up around 8:30, at the gym by 9 am. I lift weights for about an hour and then come back home, chill, probably play some video games or something. We play Pro Evolution Soccer. Then I go to training. My warm-up is strides instead of jogging around the track. We do maybe 12 strides, starting with three simple strides and then picking up the pace after each one. I get stretched and do some drills. It depends on the workout, depends on what time of the year it is. If it’s early season, we will do some longer distances like 600 for endurance. And it depends what I am training for.

What’s the single biggest thing your coach tells you to keep in mind while racing?

He tells me to keep my head steady because I still rock a little bit. Because of him I have gotten better. That’s my big problem, keeping my body steady, because I rock a little bit.

Is that why your coach says you still have a few years before you peak?

Yeah, he knows that’s my main problem, so he says I have like 2 more years before I peak.

Do you have a pre-race routine?

I don’t really have one. I just go out there and try to stay relaxed. I try to think about weird stuff to get my mind off of the race.

There are plenty of people out there who want you to give NFL wide receiver a try. Any chance of that happening?

I probably wouldn’t be a wide receiver if I was playing football. Probably a running back. I can’t take those hits those guys take. I actually watch the NFL, so I know the hits these guys get. I’m not really into that. If you are a running back, you can see the guy coming, cushion yourself for the hit, but a wide receiver gets beaten up all kinds of ways. You jump for the ball and get taken out of the air.

When did you think you could be a gold medalist?

Not so long ago. My coach two years ago talked about past Olympics, and he said, “You can be a champion if you want. You just have to know to work hard.” I just kind of re-focused. He said that you have to know what you want. If you work hard for it, you get it. Over the years I have changed my mindset to training.

How were the Jamaican sprinters able to bring home so many medals?

Most Jamaicans are staying home now. We used to go to the US to go to school but now most guys are staying home. We have two of the best sprint coaches in Jamaica, and pretty much every Jamaican wants to be a sprinter when they grow up. That’s all they want to do. They don’t want to run 800 or stuff like that. It’s all about sprinting. It also helps that we have boys and girls camps that push athletes to do so well. We have a lot of talent coming up.

Is that part of why you wanted to run the 100 instead of the 400?

No, not with me. It was just not to do the 400 meters.

So it’s just a coincidence that the 100 meters is the glory race?

Yeah. Everybody puts a lot on the 100 meters. I figured that out now.

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3rd Jolt: Bolt as national hero.