Our second clue showed Usain "Lightning" Bolt, a nickname that again refers to his lightning-fast speed. And lightning is fast, with high end speeds of over 270,000 m.p.h. However the sound and the light actually come at different times; when it strikes an object a flash of light is observed, and we see that straight away. The heat of the lightning makes the sound of the thunder, which is transmitted through the atmosphere at the speed of sound, and that is slower than the lightning. And that is how, with a fair bit of accuracy, we can start counting in seconds once you have seen the flash and stop when you hear the rumble. Then, if you divide the seconds by five you get the distance the lightning is away from you in miles.
As for our man, he is actually The Honourable Usain St. Leo Bolt, who holds the honours of the Order of Jamaica, and the Order of Distinction (Jamaica).
He also holds many sporting honours, too many to list, but including world records in the 100, 150, and 200 metres, eight Olympic gold medals, fifteen other gold medals, five silver medals, and a bronze,, the latter from the World Athletics Championships in London, for the 100 metres.
He was born in Jamaica on the 21st of August 1986, in a town with the really lovely name of Sherwood Content, where his parents ran the grocery store. He enjoyed playing sport, including cricket and football, but his talent for running was noticed even at primary school, where he was fastest of all the children. He was also growing to be the tallest, and would eventually top out at six feet five inches.
His first taste of success at a national level was at the 2004 Carifta Games, an annual contest for track and field for athletes from across the Caribbean, and in that year held in Bermuda. He was just seventeen, and he became the first person to run two hundred metres in under twenty seconds (19,93). He was also awarded the Austin Sealy Trophy for the most outstanding athlete at the games. That almost certainly propelled him on to the Jamaican track and field squad for the 2004 Olympics at Athens.
Four years later he won his first Olympic gold medal at Beijing, for the hundred metre sprint. He won that in a record time of 9.69 seconds.
His final Olympics came in Rio de Janeiro, in 2016, where he won the hundred metres with a time of 9.81 seconds. But at the 2017 World Championships during the 4 x 100 metres relay he pulled up short, injured, and then announced his retirement from athletics.
He did dabble with football, turning out for a Norwegian side in a friendly match, being on the team for Soccer Aid 2018, and then joining the Australian team, the Central Coast Mariners, from New South Wales. But he left them after a couple of months.
Since then he has done a lot of promotional work, written his autobiography, and gained quite a following on social media.
This set is another of those with what seem like unending variations - including :
- Base set
- Autograph, black frame [mini card]
- Autograph, black frame - "X" [mini card]
- Autograph, blue frame [mini card]
- Autograph, blue frame - "X" [mini card]
- Autograph - gold ink
- Patch cards - dual, gold
- Patch cards - dual, silver
- Autograph, red frame [mini card]
- Chrome
- Chrome X
- Chrome Refractors
- Chrome Refractors [mini card]
- Chrome Gold Refractors
- Chrome Gold Refractors [mini card]
- Chrome Orange Refractors
- Chrome Orange Refractors [mini card]
- Chrome Super Fractors
- Chrome Super Fractors [mini card]
- Chrome "X"
- Chrome X-Fractors
- Foiled Filigrees - gold
- Foiled Filigrees - silver
- Glossy card
- Glossy card [mini card]
- Mini card - text back
- Mini Card - Allen & Ginter advert back
- Mini Card - black border
- Mini card - Brooklyn
- Mini card - chrome "X"
- Mini card- red "X"
- Mini card - silver "X"
- Mini card - standard "X"
- Mini card - unnumbered version
- Printing Plate - black [mini card]
- Printing Plate - cyan [mini card]
- Printing Plate - magenta [mini card]
- Printing Plate - yellow [mini card]
- Relics
- Silver Portrait
- Wood [mini card]
There may be more, but this list was supplied by the same reader who sent the scan of the card - and at this point I have to say that you can multiply these parallels by the total number of cards in the set, three hundred and fifty. That makes a total "set" of fourteen thousand three hundred and fifty cards...... And as I said above, there may be a few missing from this list.