Usain Bolt’s Twitter bio says he is the most naturally gifted athlete the world has ever seen, but could he be a naturally gifted linguist as well? Ahead of the 2013 World Championships in Athletics in Moscow later this month, Usain Bolt can be seen in a Puma advert taking Russian lessons after training on the track.

“It’s not an easy language,” said the sprinter. “It’s different to the way we speak in Jamaica, that’s for sure.”

Usain Bolt’s Russian language skills

Usain should take pride in his Russian, with our Russian speaking staff stating that he is quite good (and taking time to transliterate the video)! He makes a small error at the beginning, when instead of saying “Ya iz Yamajki” (I am from Jamaica), he says “Ya miss Yamajki”, which means “I am miss Jamaica”. However, he makes up for it later when the cassette he’s using makes a mistake on the phrase “Have the other guys crossed the line?” by saying “Oni uzhe pereshli finish” but Usain still says it correctly, “Oni uzhe peresikli finish”.

Usain is not the first athlete to take up a new language, with Andy Murray telling Daily Mail about his attempts to learn Spanish while living in Spain for two years.

Breaking world records and breaking language barriers… did someone say Usain Bolt or Usain Болт

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