Even for someone as fast as Usain Bolt, the rust has set in.

At 39, even climbing a flight of stairs can feel like a challenge.

Time really flies, or what? Usain Bolt, the legendary sprinter, famously known as the fastest man on the planet, looks in great shape physically, but internally, he isn’t quite the same.

An eight-time Olympic gold medallist, Bolt retired from active competition in 2017, having held the world record in 100 meters, 200 meters and 4×100 meters relay. Bolt admits that father time has caught up with him.

An 11-time world champion revealed that he no longer engages in running or sprinting, and that the majority of his time is spent at home.

“Well normally, I wake up just in time to see the kids off to school, and then it depends on what I have to do.

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.

And then afterwards, I just stay at home and watch movies, or I’m into Lego now, so I do Lego,” Bolt told The Guardian.

Bolt attended the World Championships, and as the world’s greatest sprinter sat high above the stadium in a skybox, his presence was still looming over a sport that hasn’t been the same since he left.

Oblique Seville may now be the 100-meter world champion, but Usain Bolt remains the only track star of this century whose fame extends far beyond the sport.

Eight years after his retirement, no one has come close to matching his times, or his aura.

Time has taken its toll

He is now a father to five-year-old daughter Olympia Lightning and four-year-old twin boys, Saint Leo and Thunder.

They have no clue just how big a star his dad was back in the day.

If there was ever a word ‘unbeatable’ in sport, Bolt came the closest.

However, the greatest sprinter of all time believes their perspective may change at the next World Championships, two years from now in Beijing — the city where his career first took flight.

Bolt plans to take them there himself, to show them the stage where it all began and tell them about their father’s legacy.

Outside track and field, time away from the sport has taken its toll.

Even for someone as fast as Bolt, the rust has set in, the point where, at 39, even climbing a flight of stairs can feel like a challenge.

“I mostly do gym workouts. I’m not a fan, but I think now that I’ve been out for a while, I have to actually start running. Because when I walk up the stairs I get out of breath.

I think when I start working on it fully again, I will probably have to do some laps just to get my breathing right,” added Bolt.