When Usain Bolt broke the world records in the 100m and 200m sprints at the Beijing Olympics, he became the first man since the Games resumed in 1896 to win the two most prestigious men's races during the same Olympics.

He then went on to run the third leg on the 4x100m Jamaican relay team that erased the 16-year-old record set by a US team that included the legendary Carl Lewis. So how did this happen? Besides remarkable athleticism and God-given talent, what are some of Bolt's amazing success secrets?

1. Perfecting every move: Bolt bucks convention. At 6ft 5in he should be too tall to be a sprinter. Richard Thompson, the runner-up in the 100m competition, said: “People think you have to be short, strong and stocky to be a great sprinter but Usain Bolt has defied that. It's the beginning of something else.”

Coach Glen Mills, who in recent years transformed Bolt from a teen prodigy into a sprint sensation, gave insight into the technical adjustments that led to his Olympic dominance. "Our emphasis was to get him as technically correct as possible and that took us over two seasons. Last year, we concentrated on correcting his running the bend, making him more efficient around the curve. I felt that I could significantly improve his 200m. He was leaning inside on the turn and was unbalanced. We got him to lean forward and that contributed to him developing a good first 100m."

Bolt admits to making a huge turnaround under the guidance of his coach. "Things changed dramatically when I joined up with Glen," he said. "Glen is like a father figure to me. He is a guiding light in my career and he has shown me the way to improve myself both as a person and as an athlete."

2. Staying cool: When asked about Carl Lewis, Bolt replied: "I don't think about it too much as that puts too much pressure on you. Like a baby, I'm taking a step at a time."

Instead of being nervous and uptight as athletes are supposed to be, Bolt is the picture perfect of relaxation. Before each of his magnificent performances on the track, he finds time to express a laid-back exuberance that defies the norm. Audiences are accustomed to the sombre aspect of the nervous athlete, whose life seems in the balance. Instead, here comes a young man who says, and shows, that running is not a matter of life and death. It is only a sport. It is just another experience to be shared, a platform on which to delight and amaze.

3. Being yourself: The day after Bolt’s 100m win, IOC boss Jacques Rogge told reporters: "I have no problem with him doing a show. However, I think he should show more respect for his competitors and shake hands, give a tap on the shoulder to the others immediately after the finish and not make gestures like the one he made in the 100 metres."

Singaporean businessman James Tan, 68, who was at the Bird's Nest Stadium when Bolt rewrote the 100m record, said the Bolt he saw was definitely not disrespectful. "He hammed it up for the cameras, he went into the stands to hug people, he danced for us - and he made sure he covered the entire stadium. Everyone loved him," said Tan. "He also bowed to the crowd. Would someone who is disrespectful do that?"

The editor of the Jamaica Observer newspaper explained Bolt’s behavior in terms of the local culture: “It's the face of Jamaica we like to sell our tourists, whom we greet with song, dance and unbridled joy as opposed to a stiff upper lip, meaningless small talk and other diplomatic gestures of insincerity. As our own reggae icon Mr Bob Marley pointed out so many years ago in song: 'We refuse to be what they wanted us to be. We are what we are, that's the way it's going to be'."

4. Believing in the greater force: According to team doctor Herb Elliott, part of Bolt’s record beating performance is religious conviction. Elliott used the movie Chariots Of Fire, based on two British athletes competing in the 1924 Olympics, as an illustration. “You remember the guy who believed in God so strongly? Our athletes are strong believers in the Almighty. They believe that without the Almighty they can do nothing, and with the Almighty they actually can do anything.”

5. Eating naturally: The secret of Bolt's sprinting prowess, at least according to his Aunt Lilly, lies in a substance the precocious Olympic champion has consumed for years: the mouth-watering yellow yams she still cooks for him at Miss Lilly's Bar and Shop, deep in the hilly heartland of Jamaica. "You can count on that," Lilly Bolt, 56, told TIME by telephone from the patio of her restaurant, where Usain also likes to dance to roots reggae music. And Bolt's performance-enhancing yams should not be confused with any kind of drug: "I don't even use fertilizer growing those yams," she says.

6. Becoming a role model: A growing number of Jamaican citizens and officials are counting on their world-conquering young sprinter - who has never failed a drug test, and often speaks out against the gunplay at home - to supplant self-styled "roughneck" singers as role models, and help reduce the country's horrific levels of violent crime. Jamaican sports writer Carole Beckford, author of Keeping Jamaica's Sport On Track, said: "Bolt can speak to the young people in our more troubled communities, especially since he comes from those communities."

Bolt's Aunt Lilly agrees: "This gives Jamaicans a new picture to hold in their hands and look at for a moment and say to themselves, you know, we can do better." Ivor Conolley, who owns The Last Resort, a bed-and-breakfast inn near Auntie Lilly's restaurant, added: "The whole country feels right now as if good things are happening to us for a change."

In cities like Kingston, in the wake of Bolt’s victories, everyone was wearing yellow, the color of Jamaica's athletic uniform, to work and draping the national flag on their cars.

7. Turning adversity into competitive advantage: The most controversial explanation of Bolt’s gold run comes from team doctor Herb Elliott. Elliott, who oversees drug testing in Jamaica, said African slaves who ended up in Jamaica were among the strongest and most determined – qualities, he says, that have helped Bolt and his team-mates.

“They say that our aggression, our toughness, came out of our slave situation,” said Elliott, who is black. The team doctor said he subscribes to the view “considering that Jamaica had more slavery rebellion than any country in the world”.

The background, Elliott suggested, involves what is known as the ''Middle Passage'', the second stage of the transatlantic slave trade. Ships carried enslaved Africans to the Caribbean islands in North and South America in the late 1700s and early 1800s. The slaves who staged frequent rebellions in Jamaica, Elliott said, have created a culture of resolve that led to success in sprinting and academics. “We passed exams at universities abroad because of the strength where other blacks failed,” he said.