A year ago, Usain Bolt revealed he had stopped running and got out of breath whenever he went up the stairs. But now the greatest sprinter in history has insisted he has made a lightning return to fitness after proposing last month to his long-term partner Kasi Bennett.

Bolt, who is an ambassador for the World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest, laughed as he told reporters that his claims about his lack of fitness in Tokyo last year had been overegged for effect. “I made a joke and you guys took it out of context,” Bolt said, with a grin.

“It was everywhere. I wasn’t running out of breath walking up the stairs. I was just making a joke. I’m in the best shape of my life. Make sure that’s the headline.”

Part of that fitness drive, it appears, is down to his engagement to Bennett, the mother of his three children – Olympia Lightning, Thunder and Saint Leo – who he proposed to on his 40th birthday. “I tell you guys, I’m working out,” Bolt said. “I’ve really been to the gym and working on it every day since I’ve been here. So, I’m trying to get on it and I’m doing well. I’m happy with where I’m at. So let’s continue working on this.”

Bolt, who won eight Olympic gold medals and 11 world titles, still holds three world records – 9.58sec in the 100m, 19.19 in the 200m and 36.84 in the 4×100m relay. He also gave his endorsement to the Ultimate Championship and said the athletes he had spoken to had loved the new event, its innovations and its $10m (£7.4m) prize fund. “I think they’re loving it,” he said. “It’s a different kind of feeling, a different vibe.”

Bolt was smiling as he spoke to a group of reporters, and clearly in much better spirits than when he spoke to journalists in Tokyo last year. But then when he was asked what he did on a typical day, he replied: “Well, normally, I wake up just in time to see the kids off to school. If I have nothing to do, I just chill out. I might work out sometimes if I’m in a good mood. I just watch some series and chill until the kids come home. I spend some time with them, hang out, until they start annoying me. Then I leave. Afterwards, I just stay at home and watch movies or I’m into Lego now.”

Bolt, who ruptured an achilles in 2024, also said he was no longer running. “I mostly do gym workouts,” he said. “I think when I start working out fully again, I probably have to do some laps just to get my breathing right.”