Mothers the world over know best. Just ask Jennifer Bolt, the mother of Usain, the world's fastest man.
Speaking in London on Wednesday, she said her son "might change things around a bit and try something new" for the 2012 Olympic Games.
The 400 metres might be an option, so too the long jump, she said, although switching to a field event was less likely than simply extending his long legs one lap of the track. But she knows that keeping Usain interested in the sport, giving him new challenges, is the key to his motivation.
Mrs Bolt, a former runner herself at 100m, 200m and 400m, said she first realised Usain's brilliance when he won the world junior 200m title in 2002.
"That moment, I knew he could be the Olympic champion."
So what about more world records? Was he capable of running even faster than the 9.58sec for the 100m and 19.19 in the 200m he posted at last year's world championships?
"Yes he can do more, but not a world record this year; 2012 will be the year," she said. Mrs Bolt was one of several mothers of famous athletes attending the launch of Procter and Gamble's 10-year sponsorship of the International Olympic Committee. The deal has taken the total number of IOC sponsors to 11, contributing $1 billion (Dh3.6 billion) for the four-year London Olympiad.
Paula Radcliffe's mum, Pat, wistfully recounted how her daughter won her first race in Cheshire, probably over a mile, when she was about nine years old. But the signals of her renowned determination were apparent much earlier.
"When Paula was a baby and she started to walk, she ran; she never crawled, she just got up and ran. She missed the crawling stage. It wasn't until she was 18 months old that a young friend taught her how to crawl," Mrs Radcliffe said. And Paula, now seven months pregnant with her second child, said it was easier being the daughter rather than the mother.
The difficulty of sitting in the stands watching, rather than competing, was tough.
‘In control'
"When I am competing I am in control, I know how I feel, but for mum and dad, they sit in the stands and they don't know how I feel, they can only guess and I understand that now," she said. Paula said the experience of having a baby had also tempered her preparations for the London Olympics.
She said she tried to return to competition too early after giving birth to Isla, now 3 1/2, and had suffered injuries. That will not happen again.
"I do think I pushed through too quickly [to get back racing]," she said, admitting she had failed to recognise that her body had not recovered.
So this time, she is making no plans beyond a loose thought that she might run a distance track event at next year's World Championships in Daegu, South Korea.
