Olympic gold medalist Maurice Greene is throwing shade at the current crop of athletes, suggesting they’re too obsessed with social media to chase down Usain Bolt’s records.

The American track legend, who once blazed a trail with his own 9.79-second 100m world record in 1999, has slammed today’s sprinting hopefuls for failing to leverage cutting-edge technology to smash speed barriers. Despite Bolt having set his unbeatable marks back in 2009, no one has come close to dethroning him as the fastest man alive.

The iconic Bolt, synonymous with speed supremacy over three Olympic cycles, retired from the sport in 2017 after clinching eight Olympic golds and setting the standard with world records in the 100m, 200m, and 4x100m relay events. His jaw-dropping 100m mark of 9.58 seconds and his 200m record of 19.19 seconds remain untouched.

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Furthermore, he dominates the leaderboard with the top three fastest 100m times on the books, retaining his crown years into retirement. Speaking on Jamaican sprinter Asafa Powell’s YouTube channel, Greene didn’t mince words about his bewilderment regarding modern athletes’ inability to capitalize on tremendous strides in sports science to redefine track excellence.

“I’ve always said as time progresses, man progresses, technology progresses, and people get faster,” Greene said. “With the technology and the shoes that they’ve got now, and the tracks that they’re running on, there’s no way in the world you can tell me they shouldn’t have run faster.

“If that was [me] man, I probably would have run 9.50 seconds or something on this track. Like, come on. They’re so caught up with clicking this, getting this click and not putting the focus into the progression of the race and trying to perfect their race.

“That’s why I don’t think we’ve seen a progression since Bolt. Bolt put it out there, but now it’s like nobody’s getting close to that. But why aren’t you getting close to that? Because the shoes are better than his, the tracks are faster. So things should be coming on, but [instead] they’re worried about: ‘Oh, give me this click’, and doing this and that.”

Noah Lyles claimed gold at the Paris Games in the summer with a personal best of 9.79 seconds. This time ties him with Greene’s 1999 achievement as the joint 12th fastest ever and Lyles has expressed ambition to surpass Bolt.

After his performance in Paris, the American star spoke on ‘The Dan Patrick Show’, confidently stating his ambition to break records. He insisted: “I’m trying to get it done as soon as possible.”

Yet Bolt seems to disagree that his records are in danger. Talking on talkSPORT earlier in the year, when quizzed about his record possibly being toppled in Paris, his response was cut-and-dried as he said: “Not now. I’ve not seen the talent yet to get there.”