Usain Bolt's agent says sprinter has never run a mile

The world's fastest sprinter and two-time reigning 100- and 200-meter Olympic gold medalist apparently has never ventured four times around the track.

Usain Bolt's agent Ricky Simms confirmed as much to The New Yorker: “Usain has never run a mile.”

Now, I don't think this means that Bolt has never run one mile. He's almost certainly done it before by accident. Even your out-of-shape classmate Tommy Bubblepants ran a mile in middle school gym glass.

I think what Simms means is that Bolt hasn't run a timed mile during training or in any competition, as opposed to one mile period.

There does remain a chance Bolt really has never run 1,600 meters consecutively. After all, we're talking about a man who ate 1,000 McDonald's chicken nuggets during his 10 days in Beijing in 2008. Not exactly orthodox.

The subject arises because track and field enthusiasts have debated what kind of mile Bolt, the 100-meter (9.58) and 200-meter (19.19) world record holder, could accomplish. Indeed he's a sprinter, not a distance runner, but Bolt is obviously a phenomenal athlete and must have an aerobic capacity in the upper echelon of all humans.

But there are some folks who think he couldn't break five minutes in a mile. This is former collegiate cross-country coach Robert Johnson, via The New Yorker:

"He’s a total fast-twitch-muscle-fibre guy. To expect Bolt to be good at the mile simply because he is the world’s greatest sprinter would be like expecting a great three-hundred-and-twenty-pound N.F.L. offensive lineman to be good at playing running back simply because he’s a great football player. It’s ludicrous.”

Call me optimistic or ignorant or both, but I think if you give Bolt two weeks to train for the mile, he would crack 4:30, even while slowing down at the end like he did in the 100-meter final in Beijing.