Prince Harry's head-to-head challenge with world-champion sprinter Usain Bolt during a visit to Jamaica in 2012 has gone viral, after footage of the royal cheating to secure the win has resurfaced on social media.
The light-hearted moment between Bolt and Harry occurred on one of the many occasions that the prince took part in physical challenges during the course of his official duties as a working member of the royal family.
Harry became a full-time working royal in 2015. Before that, he served as a member of the British armed forces, while undertaking occasional official trips and event appearances on behalf of Queen Elizabeth II.
In 2012, to mark her Diamond Jubilee (60 years on the throne), Elizabeth entrusted Harry with a series of visits to the Commonwealth Realms in the Caribbean. Commonwealth Realms are independent nations that are part of the Commonwealth world community. However, they retain the British sovereign as their king or queen and head of state.
There are 15 Commonwealth Realms including Britain, eight of which are Caribbean nations. Previous realms have taken action to sever all ties with the royals, such as Barbados, which abolished the monarchy in 2021, becoming a republic. Debates to form similar republics are ongoing in other nations such as Jamaica.
During Harry's Caribbean tour, he visited Jamaica where he traveled to the stadium at the University of the West Indies to meet Bolt where the pair were to take part in a friendly sprinting race for the waiting press.
Uploaded to TikTok by user @star2810.mt on October 23, footage of the prince and Bolt starting the race, with Harry jokingly jumping the gun to take an unfair advantage, has been viewed over 247,000 times on the platform so far.
@star2810.mt Usain Bolt let him win #princeharry #royal #star2810 #queen.281022 @queen.281022 ♬ nhạc nền - Star 💥
Captioned "Usain Bolt let him win," the video shows Harry distracting Bolt as he dashed for the finish line, gleefully claiming victory.
The video has received nearly 3,000 likes and numerous comments, many of which have praised Harry.
"Harry is the best we Love him," wrote one TikTok user.
"This is the Harry we love," posted another, with a further comment reading: "Haha he knew cheating would be the only way! Looks like everyone had fun though."
After their meeting, Bolt gave his reaction to the royal race in an interview to the media covering the tour.
"He cheated," Bolt joked, per the BBC. "I said we would have a rematch in London 2012 [for the summer Olympic Games] and Harry said 'I'm busy.'"
"He's cool, very down to earth," he added. "When you meet dignitaries you think it will be difficult, but he just wanted to laugh—it was an honour and a pleasure to meet him.
"I'm still the fastest man in the world, so he has a long way to go," Bolt said.
James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek's royal reporter, based in London. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.
Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We'd love to hear from you.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
James Crawford-Smith is a Newsweek Royal Reporter, based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on the British royal family ... Read more
