With doping in track and field being a long-standing issue, Jamaica’s sprint legend Usain Bolt says he’s still frustrated by athletes who take shortcuts and urges them to work on their craft fairly.

The sport of athletics has consistently been under the microscope due to reports of athletes testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs. The issue has led to several bans for top athletes as well as associations including the Russian federation after they were found guilty of State-sponsored doping.

Bolt, the 100m and 200m world record holder who retired in 2017 after winning eight Olympic gold medals and 11 World Championships titles, never failed a doping test throughout his illustrious career and has been vocal about drug use tarnishing the sport.

Bolt, speaking on the High Performance podcast recently, believes athletes who cheat by taking steroids aren’t fully committed to their job.

“I can never understand why. A lot of people don’t want to wait their time. I personally feel that I got a talent, God gave me a talent and I think if you work on your talent and you’re really dedicated [you can] figure out how [you] can get better. [But] a lot of people didn’t take the time out to figure out ‘what I did wrong or what can I do better to get to the level’ because that’s what I did,” he said.

“I struggled throughout the years to get to where I’m at but I figured it out like, ‘this is what I need to do, this is what is going to get me better’ and I think a lot of times [for] a lot of athletes the work is so hard, because it’s not easy, it’s very intense and full of injuries at times. And some people just don’t want to put the work in so it’s tough and sometimes the mental area that really drives you to go ‘let me try this’ instead of doing the work.”

The world’s fastest man, whose sprint world records of 9.58 seconds and 19.19 seconds have stood for the past 15 years, had his fair share of injuries. He dealt with scoliosis, a condition in which the spine abnormally curves sideways, instead of being straight.

Bolt says he never took the easy route and didn’t use anything as an excuse in his quest for success.

“It was an issue that always bothered me throughout my career but it’s something I managed very well. It was a tough time but I had the right team, dedication, hard work, sacrifice and everything came together with time.

“The good thing about it is I found Dr Müller-Wohlfahrt from Germany that really understood how to help me manage. It wasn’t perfect, we still got injured every now and then but it helped to manage what was necessary,” he explained.

He added: “The moment you start using something to say, ‘this is why I’m not doing that’, then you’re always going to be behind the eighth ball. I still can compete, I still can be the best and I didn’t put limits on myself, so I kind of pushed through the hard times and understood that if I worked hard and I managed the scoliosis right then I’ll be fine.”