The Man Who’s Bringing Usain Bolt To Toronto

PHOTO COURTESY OF JOHN CARSON

John Carson gets credit for bringing Usain Bolt to Toronto.

A wind turbine. More than 10,000 pounds of books. And a grand piano for the church.

 These are the kinds of things that probably swung the deal that’s bringing Jamaican sprint king Usain Bolt to Toronto to run Thursday in the Festival of Excellence at Varsity Stadium.

Bolt is coming here because of the relationship between John Carson, a massage therapist who is director of the Classic Mile in Cambridge, Ont., and Ricky Simms, one of Bolt’s agents.

Carson developed a rapport with Simms through bringing in some of his runners to the Classic Mile, including Laban Rotich of Kenya. What Simms saw in Carson was not just a guy who was dedicated to his event and the sport, but someone who was also willing to lead a group of 22 high school students in raising $40,000 to hire a container and visit Rotich’s home village of Kokwet and build a wind turbine and bring medical and other supplies.

“I think Ricky saw what we were doing at the village level and the impact it was having and our relationship is based as much on that as anything,” said Carson.

So when Carson broached the topic of bringing Bolt to Toronto after he became the hottest sports commodity on the planet in Beijing, Simms was willing to listen. He was not a Johnny Carson Come Lately.

Sure, Bolt is getting a reported $250,000 appearance fee – but he could go anywhere these days and get that.

Once Carson got a commitment from Simms that Bolt would indeed come, he linked up with the University of Toronto, which had the resources to bring this event off and, like Carson, also the strong desire to breathe some life into track and field in these parts.

PHOTO COURTESY OF JOHN CARSON

Hard work in Kenya helped Carson land a track superstar.

One of principals putting together the field for the event is Carson’s old track nemesis, middle distance runner Dave Reid, who always got the better of him. Reid has been working with U of T track boss Carl Georgevski in putting together a stellar field that includes Olympic champions LaShawn Merritt (400 metres) and Bryan Clay (decathlon).

“We’re building it so it’s not just the Usain Bolt show,” said Carson. “This year, it may be a coming out party for track and field and it certainly helps to have the hottest ticket in sport. But we’re showing it’s much more than a 100-metre exhibition race.”

The overall objective is a playground to podium approach and to that end the Festival of Excellence has targeted community groups, schools and clubs to get involved through the Run Like Lightning program. They are running youth events earlier on Thursday and exposing as many kids as possible to the meet and to Bolt.

They are looking to the excitement the meet will bring and its live coverage on TSN to create more awareness.

“Until you’re moved emotionally, it doesn’t have the same effect on you,” said Carson. “The goal is to move people emotionally and out of that have a call to action. The goal or reason for doing something like this is it brings energy to the sport.”

A Bolt of energy, you might say. It shapes up to be an exciting week.