When Justin Gatlin was suspended for doping in 2006, he was on top of the sprinting world. He had won gold in the 100 meters dash at the 2004 Olympics and 2005 world championships. But when Gatlin returned to competition in 2010, there was a new king: Usain Bolt.
Bolt won gold medals at the 2008 Olympics in the 100, 200 and 4x100 relay. He did it again in 2012 and 2016. Gatlin mustered a bronze and silver in the 100 at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, respectively. But this summer, in Bolt's final 100-meter race at the world championships in London, Gatlin took gold. Bolt settled for bronze.
Bolt has retired, but Gatlin says the Jamaican will get his fill of fun, then think about a second wind of competition.
"Now that he has the free time, I've already told him, I'm going to give you a year," Gatlin says. "You're going to go around, party, have a good time, and you're going to come back and you're going to owe me $100 because I took the bet. He shook on it.
"I say that I can see him coming back to sprinting because when you have a passion for something, it's hard for you to just step away from it and walk away from it. Regardless, I mean, he has won every gold medal that he can win at every event that he's done, right? Three times over, right? So, at the end of the day, you kind of lose your drive. What can I do next? Can I break my own world record again? Can I win another, another, another, another gold medal? What can I do? But that passion to get up every morning is still there. So once he takes some time off and gets away from the sport for a little bit and enjoys himself, finds out who he is, I think that he'll come back in some form into to track and field, and I think maybe he'll take another year, see what it is."
In related news, Gatlin says he and Bolt have partied a few times together, and Bolt is apparently the J.R. Smith of sprinting.
"He loves to DJ, he loves to take the mic. He gets hot, so he takes his shirt off a lot," Gatlin says.
He spoke to ThePostGame in New York City last month while promoting the Justin Gatlin Foundation, which launched with a youth sprint clinic in Staten Island on Sept. 23.
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