Bolt and his mother, Jennifer Bolt, enjoying their chicken. - file

BERLIN, Germany:

Jennifer Bolt is not totally sure, but she heard her son has acquired a new nickname - or two - since last year when he stunned the athletics world with three world records at the Olympics in China.

Yet, she and her husband Wellesley claim, not much else has changed about Jamaica's 23-year-old sprint sensation, who shattered two of those marks at the 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics which ended here on August 23.

"I heard his brother call him a new name, you know," Mrs Bolt said Sunday as she watched her son conclude the gold medal procedure as part of Jamaica's 4x100 metres relay team. "I don't even know, but last year he was 'Ugo'. I don't even remember them. 'Dassa', or something to that effect."

Still comes home

What she is certain of is that he still comes home, despite his increasingly busy schedule, partly to see her, his father, the rest of the Bolt family in Sherwood Content, Trelawny, and the people from his community. There, he is still Usain. No airs, just the once hyperactive boy who grew up in the district.

"Usain is not for that," Mrs Bolt said when asked if the celebrity status would make her son any different. "No, he hasn't changed. Just the same Usain you've seen since World Juniors (when Bolt won the 200 metres as a 15-year-old in 2002) until now."

"He's the same Usain," Wellesley Bolt said of his son.

Even if he did change, Mrs Bolt explained, the community would understand. Life for the world's fastest man, now one of the most recognisable and in-demand faces on the planet, has been abruptly rearranged.

"They would accept," said Mrs Bolt, "because they know life has changed for him. But Usain hasn't changed. He hails (the people of the district) as usual. They call him by his aliases."

If only they could have seen him yesterday, maybe they would have found a new calling card for Usain Bolt. Fans, in three deep rows, flocked the tent where Bolt, Asafa Powell and Michael Frater, two other members of the relay team, wrapped up the medal procedure outside the Olympic Stadium. They shouted Bolt's name, strained to get vantage points for photographs and shoved various items across the restraining barrier hoping for autographs.

Whisked away

After the procedure was finished, the trio were whisked away in a car, leaving the screaming crowd in their wake, much like they did the competition on Saturday night. The other medal winners, from Trinidad and Tobago and Great Britain, simply waded through the disappointed mob, stopping to appease the occasional autograph hunter or photo enthusiast.

But Mrs Bolt knows her son will soon be home, probably by the end of this month, after he fulfils his growing professional commitments. They have piled on even more since his latest exploits at the World Championships in Athletics.

"I'm not sure (when he'll be home)," she said, "because his schedule has changed. Each time he breaks the world record, you know, the schedule changes."

Favourites will be ready

So after the motorcades and the adulation from crowds expected to greet the sprinter when he arrives in Jamaica, Mrs Bolt will need to make sure his favourites are ready when her son walks into the family home.

"He loves his pork and dumplings," Mrs Bolt said, bursting with laughter.

It's what she can still give for the joy Bolt has brought to his family, community and country.

"It's really awesome," Mrs Bolt said. "I cannot express my feelings. It's really good. The community is looking forward to him."

"It's unbelievable," her husband added. "So you have to be a happy person."

The Bolts hardly expected their son to become a phenomenon. But now the possibilities seem so teasing, they're tempted to take a peek down the road.

"I wasn't looking that far," Mrs Bolt said, describing Bolt's earlier years. "But now I have to look in the future.

"Usain as a child, he was a hyperactive person," she added, glancing at the crowd. "So I know he was going to do something. But not this."