Opinion | Usain Bolt may be a megastar, but he can't outrun his sport's limitations

He is arguably the most charismatic and dazzling sportsman in the world right now and has been for the past seven years. And yet despite being the fastest recorded human ever, Usain Bolt still can't outrun either the limitations or the negative stigma surrounding his sport. This past week the Jamaican sprinting superstar was back where his legend began seven years ago at Beijing's Bird's Nest stadium during the 2008 Summer Olympics. A towering, 21-year-old sprinting prodigy, he had come into those Olympic Games with a fair bit of promise. Running in the 100 and 200 metres, as well as the 4x100m relay, all Bolt would do is set three world records in winning three gold medals. No one in the history of athletics had ever done what he did and the carefree and laid-back Bolt immediately became a global sensation.

As he once again stood in the starting blocks last week in Beijing during the IAAF World Championships, it was impossible not to trace the arc of his career. Having just turned 29, he has added three more Olympic gold medals at the 2012 Games in London while winning gold in the 100 and 200 at every major international meet, with the exception of the 2011 world championships where he was disqualified in the 100 for a false start.

But herein lies the limitation of his sport. The people who run athletics are always looking for ways to grow their sport and broaden their fan base. However, since Bolt's riveting debut at the 2008 Games, he has run the 100 and 200 in an internationally sanctioned event only a handful of times.

If we look at his races against the absolute best runners in the world then it has been five events, two Olympics and three world championships (in which he's run both the 100 and 200 finals), which means a grand total of 50 seconds in the 100-metre finals and roughly 100 seconds raced in the 200. So over the past seven years we have seen Bolt, the most dominant sportsman in the world, actually compete at the highest level for a grand total of two minutes and 50 seconds and you can actually subtract 10 seconds from that for his DQ at the 2011 worlds.

Yes, there are qualifying heats to get to the finals but the top runners hardly break a sweat in those. After his repeat triple gold showing in 2012, the ambitious Bolt laid out his plans. "I want to set myself higher than the rest," he said. "Because I want to be among the greatest of all time and be discussed as someone great like Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali and Pele."

But Jordan would routinely play 100 games a year, while Ali had 61 career fights and Pele was involved in close to 40 matches annually. Granted, not all of those game or bouts were of the highest order, but comparatively speaking we rarely see Bolt competing and at the end of day the judgment for transcendent greatness is still repeatedly excellence at the highest level.