{"id":53671,"date":"2025-04-01T23:14:37","date_gmt":"2025-04-01T23:14:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/usain-bolt-mourns-the-loss-of-his-father-wellesley-bolt\/"},"modified":"2025-04-01T23:14:25","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T23:14:25","slug":"usain-bolt-mourns-the-loss-of-his-father-wellesley-bolt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/usain-bolt-mourns-the-loss-of-his-father-wellesley-bolt\/","title":{"rendered":"Usain Bolt mourns the loss of his father, Wellesley Bolt"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>According to reports, Wellesley had been battling health issues following a stroke. He was rushed from his home in Trelawny to a hospital in Kingston, where he succumbed to his illness.<\/p>\n<p>Tributes have poured in from across Jamaica, with Prime Minister Andrew Holness acknowledging Wellesley\u2019s impact on his son\u2019s career.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have all witnessed the deep love and respect you\u2019ve always shown for your family. As you grieve this great loss, the prayers and support of an entire nation are with you. We mourn with you, we stand with you, and we honor the memory of your father alongside you,\u201d Holness said.<\/p>\n<p>Minister of Sports Olivia Grange also paid tribute to Wellesley, affectionately known as &#8220;Gideon&#8221; in his community. \u201cEvery success that Usain has achieved can be attributed to the confidence given to him by his ever-supportive mother and father. It is going to be a difficult time, but I encourage them to be comforted by the memory of a very good father,\u201d Grange said. <\/p>\n<p>Wellesley Bolt played a key role in shaping Usain\u2019s career, steering him away from cricket and football to focus on track and field. He remained a constant presence in the stands as his son dominated global athletics, winning eight Olympic gold medals.<\/p>\n<p>He is survived by his wife, Jennifer, and their three children, Usain, Sadiki, and Christine Bolt-Hylton.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-84679 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/pic-105.jpg\" alt=\"Jamaica\u2019s Usain Bolt with his mother, Jennifer Bolt and father, Wellesley Bolt during the press conference in London, Britain, Aug. 1, 2017.\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jamaican sprint legend Usain Bolt is mourning the loss of his father, Wellesley Bolt, who passed away on Monday at the age of 68. His death comes as Bolt is still fighting to recover $12 million stolen from him by a local investment company.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":135,"featured_media":2000084678,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-53671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000084678,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/profile-504.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/profile-504.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/profile-504.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/profile-504.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/profile-504.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/profile-504.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/135"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000084678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53671"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=53671"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=53671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}