UnNews:Bolt denies calling WWI 'a bit shit'

Monday, August 4, 2014

Bolt later denied saying that he thought the rain was 'a bit wet' and that his plane home was 'a bit noisy'.

Usain Bolt, the Jamaican sprinting sensation, has denied that he called World War I 'a bit shit' in an interview with a Times reporter.

Journalist, Katie Gibbons claims she approached Bolt this morning as he waited in the rain for the car that would take him away from the Commonwealth Games.

Gibbons asked him about his thoughts on the centenary of the declaration of the war, and Bolt reportedly said that “World War II was better”, that he was “not really” clear on why the Allied powers fought it, and that he felt the War was “a bit shit”.

As soon as the claims were published, Bolt disowned the comments on Twitter, and called for a hasty interview with the BBC amid the inevitable violent media reaction.

"I just wanna say that I think this war is fantastic, really first class. I actually prefer it to the other wars, I think. The atmosphere was just incredible."

Commentators were not convinced by the apology however. Joanna Corey explained to UnNews why the comments were so damaging, "This really hit a raw nerve. Everyone knows that World War II is the main event - all the big names are there: Hitler, Stalin, Churchill.

"World War One likes to think of itself as still being relevant in this day and age, but really, what has a war about a despotic ruler in Russia, ineffectual lines of allegiance in Europe and a powder keg mentality in the Middle East got to do with 2014?"

Sources

• Leverage, "Usain Bolt denies calling Glasgow’s 2014 Commonwealth Games ‘a bit shit’" Guardian, October 1 2023

• World War One centenary: Britain remembers