Breaking News - Usain Bolt ruled out of Olympics - see why!!

Usain Bolt said Friday he has withdrawn from the Jamaican Olympic track-and-field trials with a hamstring injury, but the world’s fastest man hopes to be given an exemption to make the national team for the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

In statement posted on verified social media, Bolt said he had been diagnosed with a grade-one hamstring tear by a team doctor, and that he had pulled out of the remainder of the Jamaican national championships. “I will seek treatment immediately and hope to show fitness at the London Anniversary Games on July 22 to earn selection for the Olympic Games in Rio,” he said.

Jamaica, like the U.S. and other nations with deep pools of talented athletes, stages a national championships as a trial to determine its track-and-field delegation to the Olympics.

Asked for clarification on how Bolt might seek a berth to Rio, his agent, Ricky Simms, wrote in an email: “The Jamaican selectors have the flexibility to select any athlete who misses the Trials due to medical reasons.”

Bolt, 29, is a six-time Olympic gold medalist, across the 100 meters, 200 meters, and 4 x 100 meter relay. He has been expected to defend those titles in Brazil this summer for an unprecedented third straight Olympics, which he has said would be his last.

However, Bolt’s injury raises the possibility he could miss the Rio games, which would leave the event without one of its brightest stars.

The International Olympic Committee oversees the administration of each Olympic Games, but responsibility for completing Olympic delegations lies with each sport’s international governing body and each nation’s national Olympic committee.

A spokesman for the Jamaican Olympic Association deferred to the nation’s track-and-field federation, the Jamaican Athletics Administrative Association.A representative for the JAAA couldn’t immediately be reached. However, the national-team selection criteria detailed on its website states “athletes who are ranked/listed in the top three in the world for their event who are ill or injured at the time of the National Championships and are granted an exemption from competing at the Championships may still be considered for selection provided that they are able to prove their world ranking form prior to the final submission of the entries for the competition.”

The International Association for Athletics Federations didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

Bolt has run 9.88 seconds for the 100 meters this season, the second-fastest time in the world this year. He also has qualifying standard in the 200 meters from last summer. He is scheduled to race the 200 meters at a professional meet in London on July 22, as referenced in his statement, however that meet falls outside of the IAAF qualifying window for Rio, which ends July 12, according to materials available on the federation’s website.