Maurice Greene at a news conference in Beijing on Monday. (AFP)

Beijing: Former Olympic and world 100m champion Maurice Greene announced his retirement on Monday. The 33-year-old American, who also held the 100m world record of 9.79 seconds for more than three years, said a calf injury he sustained in training last month had convinced him to end his career.

“Today I’m officially announcing my retirement from the sport,” he told reporters here. “I don’t think I can have that mental battle with myself coming back from injury any more. It takes a lot out of you mentally ... you start getting down and then you get depressed. This is Olympic year, something I wanted to do so bad. So I just decided to call it quits ... I want other people in the sport to shine.”

A native of Kansas City, Greene made his breakthrough by claiming the 100m gold at the 1997 world championships. In June 1999 in Athens, he ran a world record time of 9.79, carving five hundredths of a second off Donovan Bailey’s three year old mark.

That same August in Seville, he became first man to win the 100m and 200m titles at a single world championships and a year later he won the Olympic 100m at the Sydney Games. He added another Olympic gold in the sprint relay. His world mark survived until Tim Montgomery ran 9.78 in 2002, although Montgomery was later stripped of the record after being found guilty of using banned substances.

“I’ve had so many highlights, my first Olympic gold medal, my first world championship gold, breaking the world record indoors and outside,” Greene said. “All of them mean something to me, something special in my heart. I just wanted to be the best I could be, I wanted to be the greatest of all time.”

Tyson Gay, who matched Greene’s sprint double at last year’s world championships in Osaka and hopes to repeat the feat at the Beijing Olympics, was surprised by his compatriot’s retirement.

“It’s a shocker to me,” he said. “Not having Maurice Greene around in track and field any more is just like Michael Jordan retiring from basketball, or Tiger Woods retiring. He’s the greatest.”

Greene, who ran the 100m in less than 10 seconds a record 52 times, said he hoped the success of his career would be measured not just by the four Olympic medals and five world championship gold medals he won. “I hope people remember me as a great athlete but more than anything as a great person to be around,” he said.

FACTBOX

Born: July 23, 1974 in Kansas City.

Three-time world 100m champion in 1997, 1999 and 2001. Also won 200m in Seville in 1999 to become first man to complete the sprint double at a world championships. Also won 4x100m gold in Seville.

* Won 100m gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and a bronze in the same event four years later at the Athens Games. Part of US teams which won 4x100m gold in Sydney and silver in Athens.

* Beat Donovan Bailey’s world record by 0.05 with a run of 9.79 in Athens in 1999. The record was surpassed by Tim Montgomery in 2002, although that mark was later voided when Montgomery was found guilty of using banned substances.

* Ran the 100m in under 10 seconds a record 52 times. Still holds the world’s best mark for 60m indoor sprint with the time of 6.39 seconds he ran in 1998 and matched in 2001.

* Had his upper arm tattooed with the letters GOAT (Greatest Of All Time). His nicknames include Mo, Mo-Reece, Reecee, the Kansas Cannonball, and the Phenomenon.

(Reuters)