How Usain Bolt Achieved a Net Worth of $60 Million
Being the fastest man alive has a lot of benefits. Apart from all the accolades in the world of sports, the Olympic sprinter essentially gets an automatic celebrity status that makes him recognizable anywhere in the world. That’s what it’s like to be Usain Bolt. The Jamaican athlete has held the title of being the fastest man alive since 2008, and he still manages to hold on to this title a long ten years after. In addition, Bolt’s title also affords him a generous net worth of $60 million. There aren’t many Olympic athletes out there that could boast such a financial achievement, and Bolt certainly is part of an elite group.
It’s interesting that out of his $60 million net worth, only $1 million comes from on-track earnings. The Jamaican sprinter’s humble history certainly puts it all into perspective. Ever since he was little, Bolt had a natural affinity to sports, especially cricket and football. While he was attending primary school, he began to show promise on the track every time he competed in school meets.
By the time he was 12 years old, Bolt was already the fastest runner in his school. Coming into high school, Bolt’s interest in other sports continued, but his presence on the track field was just completely undeniable. He was noticed by a couple of professionals, who encouraged Bolt to focus all his energy towards running. Before he knew it, Bolt was competing in games that cover the entire Caribbean area, which eventually led to his recruitment into the Jamaican team in junior events. He was only 15 years old at the time. By the time he turned 18, Bolt had begun his professional career running in world championship events. He won many competitions at this level on the international stage, slowly making a name for himself in the world of track and field. By 2007, he broke the world record for the first time, beating the previous record on the 100m category. Not too long after, he took on the Olympic stage and shone like no other at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. He has been on top ever since.
Considering everything that Bolt has accomplished in his professional career, it’s no surprise that he’s got a few endorsements under his belt. Bolt is considered to be one of the highest paid athletes in the world, and it’s been reported that he earns roughly $20 million a year—most of which comes from endorsement deals. Bolt has a number, but the important fact is that some of his deals are huge endorsements. Some of Bolt’s biggest contracts include Gatorade, Nissan, Visa, Hublot, and Virgin Media. But Bolt’s biggest endorsement comes from the popular athletic wear company, Puma. Puma supplies almost 50% of Bolt’s annual earnings, giving the sprinter $9 million a year.
Bolt also makes money by making track meet appearances. You can imagine just how many people come to see the fastest man alive run a track—people know this and Bolt certainly does. Because of that fact, Bolt can charge anywhere from $250k to $300k to do track meet appearances. While that may sound like much, all of that is made up by the amount of people that show up to watch him. For example, during the 2010 Penn Relay, roughly 55,000 fans came out just to watch Bolt run. That number of paying visitors alone made revenue five times that of Bolt’s salary. That’s not even including revenue from concessions and other sources.
Apart from track meet appearances, Bolt has also appeared in plenty of other events. Bolt has appeared in television shows, radio programs, awards shows, and other types of public events. The runner also makes money by appearing in private events. All in all, it’s definitely not a bad way to make an excellent living. Bolt is proof that you can make money doing something that you love and are equally good at. The Jamaican gold-medalist is only 31 years old, and he has already achieved so much in his lifetime. When his running days are over, Bolt will continue to make money from his endorsements, possibly even growing his net worth even more after his running career is over.
