Jamaican runner Usain Bolt is set to defend his Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic gold medals beginning on August 4, despite recent injuries.
The latest Olympic schedules show Bolt will take part in the preliminaries of the Men's 100-meter race at 5 a.m. EST, and joining him will be rival Jamaican sprinter Yohan Blake. Both men are currently the bookies favorite to win the 100-meter by a very narrow margin. The bookies' odds show either Jamaican will win comfortably ahead of third favorite Team USA's Tyson Gay.
Former world 100-meter record holder and American Olympic gold medalist Maurice Greene predicts Blake will conquer all odds and defeat Bolt in the 100-meter race.
"Blake is just a little bit better and if you go back and look at the Jamaican trials they say Bolt had a bad start but look at Blake too he was right back there with Bolt, they both had bad starts and Blake was still able to come out victorious in that race. I mean even though he is having slow starts he still gets second though so he is still able to overcome some things," said Greene.
A setback for Bolt is back pains he experienced during Jamaican trials leading up to the 2012 Summer Olympics. The pains ultimately led to a pair of losses to Blake in both the 100 and 200-meter races.
"It was a slight problem. I got that fixed and I'm ready to go. I'm always ready," said Bolt. "It's all about the championship. It's never about the trials, everyone knows that."
A distinction for Bolt, outside of sprinting, is that Blake has not yet experienced the privilege to be Jamaica's flag bearer during the Olympic Ceremony last Friday, July 27.
"Carrying the flag is an honor," said Bolt. "For my country Jamaica, I'll do anything - to be on TV. I'm happy."
Usain Bolt's Olympic Schedule:
100-Meter
Men's 100-meter Preliminaries: August 4, 5 a.m. EST
Men's 100-meter Round 1: August 4, 7:30 a.m. EST
Men's 100-meter Semifinals: August 5, 2:45 p.m. EST
Men's 100-meter Final: August 5, 4:50 p.m. EST
200-Meter
Men's 200-meter Round 1: August 7, 3:50 p.m. EST
Men's 200-meter Semifinals: August 8, 3:10 p.m. EST
Men's 200-meter Final: August 9, 3:55 p.m. EST
4x100-Meter Relay
Men's 4x100-meter Relay Round 1: - August 10, 2:45 p.m. EST
Men's 4x100-meter Relay Final: - August 11, 4 p.m. EST
The London 2012 Summer Olympics can be seen on the networks of NBC Universal.