Usain Bolt of Jamaica reacts after breaking the world record with a time of 19.30 to win the gold medal in the men's 200m final in Beijing in 2008 Photo: Adam Pretty/Getty Images

Diets can be of paramount importance to a sportsman – but sprinter Usain Bolt could be the exception after he revealed he ate 1,000 Chicken McNuggets during his 10 days at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, an average of 100 a day.

The astonishing consumption didn’t do him any harm because the Jamaican broke three world records.

The news comes weeks after Novak Djokovic attributed his grand slam success to a strict gluten-free diet and WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley defeated Manny Pacquiao by going vegan.

Bolt has revealed in his soon-to-be released autobiography, Faster than Lightning, that his passion started with a box of 20, yes 20, of the golden chicken treats, but with his training going into overdrive, he soon needed far more, up to 100 a day, and even turned to an apple pie to take the edge off.

“At first I ate a box of 20 for lunch, then another for dinner,” he wrote. “The next day I had two boxes for breakfast, one for lunch and then another couple in the evening. I even grabbed some fries and an apple pie to go with it.”

The sprinter, who lit up the games, breaking three world records, claimed he only began eating the nuggets because he simply found Chinese food “odd”.

But before you get any bright ideas – a 20-piece box of the crispy snacks totals 940 calories and 59 grams of fat. So if Bolt, then 22, was putting away 100 a day, that is nearly 5,000 calories in each of the 10 days he was in Beijing, where he wasn’t just burning up the track – he was also burning some serious calories.

Independent News Service