Dear Editor,

The Jamaican Olympic team did really well. I liked the fact that Usain Bolt retained the 100-metre and 200-metre titles and anchored the gold medal 4 x 100 relay team.

But I worry about Usain Bolt because he is on the world stage now. He may have a good team around him and a handful of close friends, but I don’t have confidence in him when he speaks to the media.

I hold my breath in fear he might say something wrong. The media for now can’t get enough of him, but if he puts a foot wrong, as we all know what goes up must come down, he will fall hard.

As we can see from the Olympic games, most of the US media — especially Carl Lewis — don’t rate him as a top athlete, and there have also been a few comments from some journalists about his antics which they see as arrogance.

From what I have seen of Usain and heard about him in the past, it could all backfire. He is a very successful black man with a handful of sponsors, and sometimes when he gets time off you see him with different women. This will give him a bad reputation.

Didn’t he see what happened to Tiger Woods who knows how to carry himself in front of the world’s media as well as being educated and very articulate? He still made the biggest mistake of his life.

Usain needs to find a balance in his personal life. I’m not talking about getting married and having kids. He has plenty of time for that. But many sportsmen struggle after so much success and get caught up in the moment which is always downhill.

There are ups and downs all the time in life, but he needs to wake up fast. He is going to be used and abused in the name of fame, but can learn to enjoy himself in the company of articulate, educated, wise, honest people as he is still young.

It is said that happiness is not ready-made but comes from your own action! I hope he will figure this out before it’s too late.

Rob Dean

robertdean@london.com