Trelawny Yam Produces The Fastest Man on Earth; Usain Bolt's Father Credits The Power of Jamaican Yam

Usain BOLT streaked to 100 metres Olympic gold at the Beijing Olympics on Saturday thanks to yam power, his father said.

Wellesley Bolt said his son was partial to the vegetable grown in the north-western area of Jamaica where the sprinter was born.

“It is definitely the Trelawny yam,” Bolt senior said seconds after his son smashed the world record on the way to landing the biggest gold medal in sport.

The yam grown in the parish Trelawny is one of the staples that has made the area famous. It is sold in huge volumes here and much of it is exported.

“I spoke to him about two days ago and told him that I was getting nervous and he said ‘don’t worry Dad, I am going to win this one for you’,” Wellesley said from his home.

We Are All Jamaicans: We See Ourselves in Usain Bolt, Dreaming About Flying and Writing Poetry With Our Legs

Usain Bolt's Celebration After Winning the Men's 200-meter Final in 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

Usain Bolt's stride was exactly "poetry in motion. He is not like a beast running. He's a gazelle...And he recognized the responsibility of seizing the moment, and he did it."

The world watched the race that set apart the World's Fastest Human apart from the rest of us. Usain Bolt did for Jamaica what Jamaican Coffee has not been able to do thus far. Well, we must say that the two of them will be great representatives of Jamaica from now on. By doing so, he joined the ranks of Carl Lewis of the United States who was the last runner to win both in the same Olympics.

And the quotes just expressed the disbelief and bewilderment that most people felt on this day. "How fast can one human being go before there's no more going fast?" Let Usain describe what he saw after his win.

"I was looking at myself and saying, "That guy's fast," Bolt said after watching a replay of his race, "I was saying, 'I look cool.'" Long Live Jamaica! Jamaica truly has Usain Bolt, the Coffee and Bob Marley. It is a cool place to be from. On this day, we are all Jamaicans. Jamaicans everywhere should be overjoyed and overwhelmed on this day.

Jamaica's minister of information, culture, youth and sports put her own spin on things: "We eat healthy. We have the natural talent. We train. And we have a tradition of being great athletes. It is a wonderful gift."

Was this Olympic feast due to good, healthy eating only? Yes, Caribbean people have yams. Jamaica even exports the starchy food item. Yam eating is good for athletes. It is good for Usain Bolt and the Jamaican women who swept the competition and ended 1,2,3. Yam has no drugs. Others have speculated that Jamaicans' success could be because of more than healthy eating, cherised tradition and natural talent. If you think about the sport's recent history of drug cheats such as Marion Jones, Justin Gatlin, Tim Montgomery and Kelli White, then you may think that the U.S. sports have a major problem, but not Jamaica. Bolt has been tested so many times. It was pure natural talent and training.