Sprint king Usain Bolt was named to the Jamaican Olympic team in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m races despite an injury that kept him from qualifying at trials, the Jamaican Olympic Association said Monday. He seeks to become the first man to win three straight triple-triples after wins in Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012. The announcement was made Monday afternoon at a news conference held by the Jamaica Olympic Association in Kingston where all members of the Olympic team were announced. The six-time Olympic gold medalist was forced to withdraw from his country's trials earlier this month with a hamstring injury but was allowed on Jamaica's team headed to the Rio Summer Games after applying for a medical exemption. The inclusion of the world record holder in both the 100m and 200m on the Rio-bound Jamaican team came a day after Bolt posted a photograph from Germany of himself back in training. Unlike in the United States, where the first three finishers in the trials win Olympic berths, Jamaica's selection policy allows medical exemptions. The Jamaican roster was submitted ahead of the July 18 deadline for preliminary entries but final changes to the track and field team can be made up to Aug. 10. Since Bolt was granted a medical exemption that allows him to be added to the team, he still needs to prove his fitness by the next Diamond League meeting in London on July 22, where he recently said he would run the 200m. The full 63-member Jamaican contingent consists of 59 track and field athletes, including two-time defending Olympic 100m champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, two swimmers, one gymnast and one diver. Others receiving medical exemptions are Olympic 110m hurdles bronze medalist Hansle Parchment, world 200m bronze medalist Elaine Thompson, and 400m hurdler Janeive Russell. Bolt suffered a grade one hamstring tear on the first day of the four-day national championships. He then ran the semifinal of the 100m before withdrawing an hour before the final. He submitted a medical exemption for the rest of the championships, including the 200m. He then travelled to Europe to see a specialist, world renowned sports doctor Hans-Wilhelm Muller-Wohlfahrt and posted a photograph of himself training over the weekend. Bolt ran a season's best 9.88 seconds in the 100m but has yet to run a 200m race in competition. He is scheduled to run at the London Anniversary Games later this month. World champions Barber and Drouin lead Canadian team World champions Shawn Barber and Derek Drouin and heptathlon favorite Brianne Theisen-Eaton headline a 65-member Canadian athletics team for the Rio Olympics announced Monday. Barber won the pole vault at the 2015 world championships in Beijing and Drouin claimed the high jump title. He also won a bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics. Theisen-Eaton has the top heptathlon score in the world this year and is the two-time world outdoor silver medallist and 2016 world indoor champion. Decathlete Damian Warner and sprinter Andre De Grasse also will be looking for medals at the Aug 5-21 Games. "This is the strongest and most well-rounded team I have ever been a part of," said Theisen-Eaton. "The team counts multiple world medallists and a talented roster who will challenge for the podium."
