The Amount Of Money Usain Bolt Made Per Second During His 9.81 Second 100-Meter Dash Is Mind-Boggling

As you might expect, it pays to be the fastest human on planet Earth. Usain Bolt, now undeniably the greatest sprinter in the history of track and field, pulled in the largest salary in the last 12 months in the sport and it wasn’t even close.

Forbes reports that the 29-year-old Bolt raked in $32.5 million in earnings over the last year from appearances, prize money and sponsors. To put that in perspective, that’s roughly 10 times what the next top-tier track athletes made annually.

A fat chunk of that $32 million comes from his hefty Puma contract, which is structured as follows, according to Bloomberg: $10 million a year through 2016, an extra $10 million if Bolt competes in the world championships in London in 2017, and an additional $4 million annual salary to serve as a “Puma ambassador” on retirement.

The Sun crunched the numbers on how much Usain Bolt is estimated to make per each second of his Gold medal winning 9.81 second 100-meter dash on Sunday night. The number is goddamn silly and kind of depressing for dudes like me who paid for his lunch in quarters yesterday. Marketing analysts believe that Bolt made £5million (or roughly $6.5 million) a second. For reference, Bolt made more in one second than the average American would make working for 128 years, at the current average salary of $50,700.

And the money train won’t slow down even as Bolt hangs up the spikes at some point in the future. Paul Garbett, of marketing firm Fast Track said:

“Usain is a marketing man’s dream. Brands will be keen to cash in as he approaches the twilight of his career. A farewell tour could net him a fortune.”

I knew I should have stuck to track and field in high school instead of picking up a mild alcohol problem. Fuck.

[h/t The Sun]

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Matt’s love of writing was born during a sixth grade assembly when it was announced that his essay titled “Why Drugs Are Bad” had taken first prize in D.A.R.E.’s grade-wide contest. The anti-drug people gave him a $50 savings bond for his brave contribution to crime-fighting, and upon the bond’s maturity 10 years later, he used it to buy his very first bag of marijuana.